Lever Up

The recent form tells an interesting story. Going back through the last six races, the numbers read 6-4-4-8-2-3 — so a second and a third in there, but also an eighth which suggests the horse can have off days. It raced just yesterday, which means this is a yard keeping it busy and actively searching for the right opportunity. That level of activity often signals a team that believes a win is close, even if it keeps arriving just out of reach.

Billy Garritty has been in the saddle for five of those races and is yet to find the winner's enclosure with Lever Up either — a partnership that has built up plenty of experience together without the reward to show for it. The horse is trained by Michael and David Easterby at their yard in Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire, an operation that has sent out 51 winners already this season, so they clearly know how to win races. That makes Lever Up something of an outlier in a stable full of horses finding the back of the net.

The level at which Lever Up competes is also worth understanding. Class 5 is towards the lower end of the racing ladder in Britain — these are not the glamour events, but they are genuinely competitive races for horses at this level. Lever Up has run six times in that grade and not won once, which at some point raises the question of whether a change of tactics or a different type of race might unlock something. For now, it remains one of those horses that keeps showing up, keeps getting close, and keeps making its the yard wonder what it will take.