Falcon Queen

What's worth watching is the trainer. R Mike Smith, based in Galston in East Ayrshire, has sent out 25 winners already this season, which shows this is a yard that knows how to get horses winning. That's a decent operation, and horses from active, winning stables tend to improve with time and experience. Falcon Queen raced just yesterday, so she's clearly fit and in a regular routine — the team aren't hiding her away.

The back-to-back sequence of three fourth-place finishes is actually a curious detail. It suggests she's competitive enough to sit near the front of the field without quite breaking through. That's a different animal from a horse finishing last every week. Whether she's just lacking that final gear, or whether conditions or distance haven't quite clicked yet, is the open question — and one that only more races will answer.