Lariat

The numbers are not kind on closer inspection. Lariat has found the frame 15 times without winning, which means it knows how to get competitive without quite delivering the goods when it matters most. At the distances it handles best — between a mile and six furlongs and two miles — it has managed 1 win from 29 races, a rate of just 3%. That single win at Bellewstown remains the solitary high point of a long career, and it came on what was presumably a perfect day when everything clicked.

The partnership with jockey Adam Caffrey has produced nothing in 12 races together, 0 from 12, which is a run of blanks that even the most optimistic racegoer would struggle to spin positively. Recent form reads 2-7-blank-9-7-9, suggesting the occasional decent effort buried among some difficult afternoons. The second place in there is the kind of result that keeps the yard — sorry, that keeps the yard involved — but it has not translated into anything more.

Cusack's team has sent out three winners this season, so the operation is not without its moments. Lariat, though, last raced just one day ago and is clearly still being kept busy. At ten years old, with one win to its name and the best days of its career well behind it, it is the sort of horse that fills out a field and occasionally surprises. The surprise, when it last came, happened at Bellewstown. Anyone watching Lariat next time out might reasonably wonder whether lightning could strike twice — in the same place, more than four years later.