Hear The Drums

The numbers are honest rather than flattering. One win from eight races works out at roughly 1 in every 8, or around 12%, which is a modest return at this stage of a young horse's career. What makes it harder to ignore is the recent sequence: going into the last six races, the form reads 8th, 9th, 1st, 10th, 8th, 7th — that solitary win sandwiched between a string of efforts that suggest the Leicester breakthrough has not yet sparked anything sustained.

Oisin Orr has partnered Hear The Drums more than anyone else, riding together in five of those eight races, but they are still looking for their first win as a combination. Five rides, zero wins is a partnership that has not yet clicked, and with the horse having raced as recently as yesterday, it is clearly still in work and still being given chances to turn things around.

Trained by the Fahey yard — Richard and Peter Fahey operating out of Musley Bank in North Yorkshire — Hear The Drums is in capable hands at least. The yard has fired out 23 winners already this season, so the talent and the infrastructure are there. Whether this particular horse can rediscover the form that brought that Leicester win eight months ago is the question worth watching.