King Sharja

Carr, who has been in sharp form this season with 56 winners from her Stillington stable, is refreshingly straightforward about what she has in King Sharja. He isn't the most elegant horse she trains, she'll tell you, but he knows his job and he wins races — and at the lower end of the competitive ladder, that's all that really matters. She expects him to pick up a couple more wins at that level this season, and there's no reason to doubt her. The evidence backs her up.

Ground is the other big factor with King Sharja. On fast, dry ground he has won 3 of 7 races — roughly 1 in every 2.3 attempts — which is a remarkable ratio for a horse whose overall career rate is closer to 1 in 8. He also does his best work over seven furlongs to a mile, where he has won all four of his races from 22 attempts at those distances. James Sullivan, who rides him most often, has partnered him to all three of those Beverley wins from 19 rides together — a win rate of around 1 in every 6 outings, comfortably better than his overall average.

His recent form reads 10-4-2-2-11-3 — no wins in his last six races, but there are places in there and he was racing again just yesterday, which tells you this is a horse that stays fit and keeps turning up. His last win came at Beverley in July last year, almost a year ago now, and if Carr gets her timing right on ground and track, there is every reason to think he finds his way back into the winner's enclosure at the same place. Horses with a Beverley habit tend to keep it.