Imnotleavinyou

The recent form tells an interesting story. Back in its last six races, there are three consecutive second-place finishes sitting right in the middle of that sequence — a run of consistency that would be genuinely exciting if only one of them had been a win. Before that, a couple of double-digit finishes suggested a horse finding its feet; after it, a ninth last time out hints that the purple patch may have eased off. That said, it raced just yesterday, so the team at Michael Mulvany's yard in Kells, Co. Meath are clearly not short of confidence in the horse.

Mulvany's operation is in decent nick this season — 20 winners sent out already — so the infrastructure and knowhow is there. Regular partner Wesley Joyce has been aboard for 5 of the 11 races without getting his nose in front, but the combination clearly hasn't been abandoned, which suggests the camp sees something worth persisting with. Sometimes a horse just needs one thing to click — a different trip, a different day, the right patch of ground — and a horse that finishes second three times in a row is a horse that knows roughly what it's doing.

The honest assessment is that Imnotleavinyou is a work in progress. Zero wins from eleven races is a tough ledger, but four places from those eleven — that's more than a third of its races resulting in a top-three finish — suggests a horse with ability that's yet to fully convert. Whether it gets there is the question its supporters have been asking all season. It raced yesterday and will presumably race again soon. The streak of near-misses goes on.