Leopold The First

The recent form tells an interesting story. Those numbers — 2, blank, 2, 2, 7, 13 — read from most recent backwards, and they show a horse that went from finishing well off the pace in its earlier runs to threading together three consecutive runner-up finishes. That is not nothing. Placing second three times in a row suggests Leopold The First is competitive and consistent, just not quite able to land the killer blow when it matters most. The gap in that sequence, shown by the dash, means one race where it either didn't finish or the result wasn't recorded — but either side of it, the horse was placing.

Robbie Colgan has been the regular jockey, partnering Leopold The First in five of its eight races, and together they are yet to win — zero from five. That is not a criticism of either horse or rider so much as a reflection of where things stand. Five attempts is a decent sample, and the partnership has clearly been committed to, which suggests the team around this horse believes the win is coming rather than pulling the plug on the combination.

Raced just one day ago and still active, Leopold The First is clearly a horse in the thick of its campaign right now. With zero wins from eight starts, some might write it off — but the back-to-back-to-back placings in its most recent runs paint the picture of a horse heading in the right direction. At some point, finishing second stops being a consolation and becomes a warning to the rest of the field.