Gorvennec

That said, trainer N W Alexander, who runs a busy and productive yard up in Leslie, Fife, is not writing him off. Alexander's team has sent out 19 winners already this season, so they clearly know what they are doing — and the trainer has spoken about Gorvennec with a degree of patience. A below-par run at Hexham was followed by something more encouraging at Ayr, where he finished behind a horse called Evaluation who had a strong flat racing background. The trainer seemed to take genuine encouragement from that effort, describing him as "a nice novice" with room to improve. The implication being: the ability is in there somewhere.

Gorvennec has done most of his racing at Class 4 level — the middle tier of British racing, not the very bottom but not the glamour races either — and has come up empty in all three outings at that grade. At seven, he is not young, and a horse still without a win at this stage needs things to start clicking fairly quickly. He raced just one day ago, so he is firmly in the middle of his campaign right now. Whether Alexander can find the right race and the right conditions to finally get him off the mark remains the interesting question — because on his better days, the trainer clearly believes there is a performance waiting to come out.