For Love Of Beauty

The recent form makes for difficult reading. Working backwards through the last six races, the finishes read 4th, 5th, pulled up or fell, 7th, 8th, and 6th — a sequence that shows a horse competing without ever threatening to win. The pulled-up or unseated result in there is a concern too, suggesting at least one run where things went wrong before the finish line was even reached. At Class 4 level — the mid-tier of British racing, a step below the top events but far from the bottom — this horse has run four times without winning once. That's not a class problem so much as a consistency one; these are races that a horse of this profile ought to be competitive in, yet the results haven't reflected that.

Noel Williams trains out of Blewbury in Oxfordshire, a quiet village in the Downs that has a long history with racehorses. The yard has sent out two winners this season, which is a modest return, and For Love Of Beauty hasn't contributed to that tally. What's worth noting is that this horse raced just yesterday and is clearly still in active training — the team hasn't given up on finding a race it can win. Sometimes all it takes is the right conditions, the right distance, or simply a race where the others happen to be having a bad day. For Love Of Beauty is still waiting for its version of that story to begin.