Game Phoenix

The recent form, however, makes for harder reading. Look at the last six runs in reverse order and you can see a horse that was briefly threatening — a third and then a fourth — before things started to unravel. Since those encouraging efforts, Game Phoenix has finished 13th, 10th, 9th, and 7th in succession. That's a slide in the wrong direction, and it's the kind of sequence that raises genuine questions about whether the horse is finding its level or simply going through a difficult patch.

Darragh O'Keeffe has been the regular partner, riding in all six of those recent races without managing to get Game Phoenix to the front. That's not necessarily a reflection on either horse or jockey — sometimes a combination just hasn't clicked yet — but six races together with nothing to show for it does mean patience is being tested on both sides of the saddle.

Paul Power trains the horse out of Butlerstown in County Waterford, a yard that has sent out two winners already this season. It's a modest operation by the numbers, and Game Phoenix — who raced just yesterday and is clearly being kept busy — is one of those horses that keeps the yard ticking over rather than headlining it. Whether Power and his team can find the right opportunity to finally get this horse into the winner's circle remains to be seen, but the fact that Game Phoenix was on a racecourse as recently as yesterday suggests they haven't given up looking.