Inishfallen

What makes the picture more striking is where Inishfallen tends to compete. Despite that modest winning record, the horse regularly lines up in Class 1 races — the very top tier of British racing — and has gone 0 from 5 at that level without troubling the judge. That is either a sign of stubborn ambition from the team at Stephen Thorne's yard in Rush, Co Dublin, or a reflection of how difficult it is to find a softer spot for a horse that just hasn't fired since that Kempton breakthrough. Thorne has had 24 winners out this season, so the yard clearly knows how to get horses winning; Inishfallen simply hasn't been one of them lately.

Over the shorter distances — anywhere between five furlongs and six and a half — Inishfallen has a record of 1 win from 14 races, a win rate of about 7%, or roughly 1 in 14. That is where the horse is most often seen, and where that lone victory was recorded. Regular partner Sean Levey has ridden Inishfallen nine times together for that single win, a rate of around 1 in 9, which at least suggests a working partnership that the team keeps coming back to. The recent form figures of 4-2-4-4-4-5 show a horse that has placed six times in its last 22 and isn't disgracing itself, but a second-placed finish is as close as it has come to repeating that Kempton day. Consistent enough to keep earning entries, not quite consistent enough to win — that, in a nutshell, is Inishfallen.