Indefensible

The recent form makes for interesting reading. In its last six races, Indefensible has posted two second-place finishes and a third, sandwiched around a couple of disappointing efforts further back in the field. That tells you this is not a horse running out of its depth and trailing in last — it is mixing near-misses with the occasional flat day, which is fairly typical of a young horse still finding its feet. It raced just yesterday, so it is very much in the thick of an active campaign right now.

Jockey Harry Russell has partnered Indefensible more than anyone else, riding it in five of its eight races without managing to get it to the line first. That is not necessarily a damning reflection on either horse or rider — plenty of horses take time to click, and the pair have clearly built up a working relationship. The question is whether that relationship produces a result before the season is out.

Trainer Ollie Pears operates out of Norton in North Yorkshire and has sent out nine winners already this season, so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse ready to win. Indefensible has been running mainly at Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, where the competition is modest and a horse like this should, in theory, have every chance of breaking its duck. Three races at that level without a win is not a crisis, but it does raise the question of when, rather than whether, the pieces will finally fall into place.

For now, Indefensible is one of those horses that keeps its supporters interested without quite rewarding their patience. In racing, that can go one of two ways — and given how consistently it has been knocking on the door, the first win might not be far away.