Inclusive

The recent run of form tells its own story. Reading from left to right, those finishing positions — 3, 6, 10, 7, 9, 10 — show a horse that briefly looked like it might kick on, then drifted steadily backwards. The last two races have brought back-to-back tenth-place finishes, which is about as far from the winner's enclosure as it gets. Inclusive raced just yesterday, so this is very much a work in progress, but the trajectory at the moment points in the wrong direction.

The yard handling this project is the Newmarket partnership of P Charalambous and J Clutterbuck, a small operation that has sent out two winners this season. Newmarket is one of the most competitive training centres in Britain, home to some of the biggest names in the sport, so a modest yard making things work there deserves some credit — but they will know better than anyone that Inclusive needs to find something extra. The horse has been tried three times at Class 6, the entry level of British racing where fields are designed to give horses like this a realistic shot at winning. It has not won any of them. When a horse cannot win at the lowest level available, that is genuinely difficult to explain away.

There is one thing working in Inclusive's favour: at three, there is still time. Plenty of horses take a while to mature physically and mentally, and a change of conditions, trip, or tactics can occasionally unlock something that the bare form suggests isn't there. Yesterday's race means the team clearly hasn't given up, and that matters. But for now, Inclusive is a horse that has cost more in entry fees than it has returned in prize money, and the first win — whenever it comes — will feel very well earned indeed.