Lady Iseult

The uncomfortable truth is that win came 48 months ago, and nothing since has matched it. Her last six races have produced no wins at all, with her best recent effort a fourth-place finish — respectable, but a long way from the winner's enclosure. The sequence reads as the kind of form that tests everyone's patience, including her own team at Dermot McLoughlin's yard in Ratoath, County Meath.

McLoughlin himself has had a productive season, sending out 10 winners, so the stable is clearly in decent shape. Lady Iseult's regular partner P J O'Hanlon has ridden her in 10 of her races and managed that one win together — a rate of roughly 1 in every 10 rides. That their sole shared success also happens to be her only career win tells you something: when this combination clicks, it clicks, but those moments have been rare and increasingly distant.

What keeps the story alive is that she raced just one day ago, which means the yard — sorry, the team — haven't given up on her. At 11, most horses are winding down or already retired, so the fact she is still being campaigned actively is genuinely unusual. Whether that reflects belief in one more good day or simply a horse who is still sound and willing, only McLoughlin knows. Roscommon gave her the finest moment of her career once. Perhaps, somewhere down the line, it might again.