Golden Millie

The one bright spot in the numbers is what happens over longer distances. At a mile and six furlongs to two miles, Golden Millie has won 1 from 4 races — that's a 25% win rate, which is a meaningful uptick compared to her overall record of 1 win from 11. In plain terms, she wins roughly 1 in every 4 races at her preferred trip, compared to 1 in every 11 overall. That gap tells you the distance genuinely matters, even if the results haven't come recently.

She's trained by Dan Horsford, whose small yard in Marlborough, Wiltshire has sent out 6 winners this season — a respectable return for an operation of that size. The stable is clearly capable of getting horses fit and ready to win, which means Golden Millie's recent run of poor finishes probably says more about the horse than the training. At 8 years old, with her last win now fading into the distance and a string of mid-to-bottom-field finishes behind her, the honest assessment is that she is a difficult horse to be optimistic about — though the fact she raced just yesterday suggests the team haven't given up on finding another day in the sun.