Illico De Montave

The recent form makes for equally tough reading. In the last six races, the best finish was fifth — and the horse has twice finished seventh and twice finished tenth. There is no upward curve here, no sign of a horse finding its feet or creeping closer to the frame. The most recent run came over seven months ago, so Illico De Montave returns from a lengthy absence with a record that offers punters very little to work with.

Regular jockey Ben Poste has been in the saddle for all eleven of those races and is yet to get near a winner on this horse. That kind of long-term partnership without reward is unusual — most yards would have tried a change of rider long before now, searching for a spark. The trainer, Rosemary Gasson, operates a small yard in Balscote, Oxfordshire, and has sent out just one winner so far this season. This is not a powerhouse operation throwing resources at the problem — it is a modest set-up doing what it can, and Illico De Montave has been its most persistent puzzle.

The horse has run six times at Class 4 level — a mid-tier grade, a step below the top end of the sport — without winning any of them. That matters because Class 4 is not the deepest water in racing. These are not elite fields. The fact that a horse cannot place at this level across eleven attempts tells you something honest about where it sits in the pecking order.

Returning after seven months away, there is always the faint possibility that time off has helped, that something has clicked. Racing is occasionally kind like that. But the sensible read of Illico De Montave's career so far is that this is a horse yet to find anything it is genuinely good at — and at seven years old, with eleven blank races behind it, the window for that discovery is getting narrower.