Hitthekettle

The partnership with jockey Chris Ward tells a similar story. The two have teamed up six times together and have yet to trouble the judge, going winless in every attempt. At Class 5 — the entry-level tier of British racing, where horses are competing against the most modest competition around — Hitthekettle has raced eight times and still cannot find the winner's enclosure. Winning at this level is supposed to be the realistic ambition for a horse of this type, which makes the blank record there all the more telling.

That said, Hitthekettle is clearly still in training and still being pointed at races — it ran just three days ago, so the team have not given up. The recent form figures show a couple of fourth-place finishes and a third, which means it is not being beaten out of sight every time. There is enough there to suggest it belongs on a racecourse. Whether it will ever get its nose in front is a different question entirely.