Little Chief

What makes this one worth watching now is the gap. Little Chief hasn't raced in roughly seven months — 213 days — which is a significant chunk of time for a young horse still finding its feet. That kind of break can mean several things: a minor setback that needed time to heal, a deliberate decision to let the horse grow and mature, or simply waiting for the right opportunity. We don't know which, but at two years old, horses can change dramatically over a winter and come back a completely different animal.

The trainer is Warren Greatrex, whose yard at Upper Lambourn in Berkshire has sent out 52 winners this season. That is a genuinely productive operation — Upper Lambourn is one of the most respected training addresses in the country, and a yard firing out winners at that rate knows what it is doing. Greatrex has a reputation for patient handling, and the fact that he has kept Little Chief in training rather than cutting losses suggests there is belief behind the scenes that better days are coming. Whether this horse can justify that faith is the question that makes its return genuinely interesting.