Lenko

What keeps this interesting, though, is who is doing the training. Gordon Elliott's yard at Longwood in County Meath is one of the most powerful operations in jump racing, and this season alone the team has sent out 210 winners. To put that in context, that is not a yard making up the numbers — that is a conveyor belt of well-prepared horses winning races week in, week out. When a trainer of that calibre keeps running a horse, it usually means they see something worth persevering with, even if the results have not come yet.

Lenko raced just one day ago, so this is a horse still very much in the mix. At four years old, there is time on its side. But four races without even a place means it has some serious ground to make up before it can be considered a reliable performer. For now, it is a work in progress from a yard that knows how to turn horses around.