Hidalgo Des Mottes

The most recent form offers a flicker of something. A second place finish sits in there among the last six runs, which is as close as Hidalgo Des Mottes gets to a good day at the office. The sequence reads 9-2-–-6-5-11, which tells the story of a horse capable of running well on its day but unable to find any consistency — a second one week, near the back of the field another. That blank in the middle suggests a missed race somewhere along the way, which is not unusual for a horse of this age being managed carefully.

Ricky Doyle has been in the saddle more than anyone else, partnering Hidalgo Des Mottes in 11 of those 33 races without either of them getting their hands on a trophy. That is a significant chunk of the horse's career spent with the same jockey, and the fact that they have not clicked into a winning partnership yet says something about the ceiling this horse has bumped up against throughout its career. Trainer Eoin Griffin, based at Slieverue in County Kilkenny, has sent out eight winners this season — so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse to win. The puzzle is simply that this one has not managed it yet.

What keeps Hidalgo Des Mottes interesting, in an odd way, is the sheer persistence of it all. Nine places from 33 races means this horse finishes in the top three roughly once every four races — it is not a no-hoper, it is a horse that competes, that runs its race, and that keeps its trainer and the yard coming back. It raced just one day ago, which tells you everything about where things stand: still active, still trying, still one race away from rewriting its own story.