Just A Heartbeat

The recent form makes for interesting reading. That string of 2-9-9-2-2-4 shows a horse capable of running right up with the leaders — three second-place finishes sit in there — but also one that can disappear into the pack on an off day. The back-to-back nines in the middle of that sequence are the kind of results that test a yard's patience, but the returns to placing form on either side of them suggest something is still ticking.

Just A Heartbeat runs out of Harry Fry's yard in Corscombe, Dorset, a stable that has sent out 25 winners already this season — a healthy return that puts Fry firmly among the trainers worth watching. A horse from a yard hitting those numbers has every reason to believe its moment could come. With Just A Heartbeat having raced as recently as yesterday, it is clearly fit and active, and Fry has kept faith with it through a winless run that would have seen less patient handlers move on.

At seven years old, time is not infinitely on this horse's side, but it is not running out either. It knows what a racecourse looks like, it has been close before, and it is in the hands of a trainer who clearly thinks there is something worth persevering with. The win has not come yet — but the pieces are not obviously missing.