Fai Fai

What makes Fai Fai's record slightly less bleak is the partnership with jockey George Rooke. In six races together, they have found the winner's circle twice — a 33 percent win rate that stands in sharp contrast to the horse's overall form. That suggests something clicks between them, even if the pattern has not held recently. Trainer Daniel Steele, based at Henfield in West Sussex, has managed just four winners across his entire yard this season, so Fai Fai is hardly alone in facing an uphill struggle at the yard. When competing in Class 6 races — the bottom tier of British racing — Fai Fai has won 2 of 31, a 6 percent return that at least edges ahead of its overall average. It is the kind of record that keeps a horse in training through sheer competence rather than promise: useful enough to place regularly, rarely good enough to win. For the yard who have believed in this horse for seven years, that thin line between hope and realism must wear thin fast.