Livano Bello

The recent form makes for interesting reading, though. Looking at the last six races in reverse order, the sequence reads 3-5-3-2-2-13 — which means four of those six runs produced a top-three finish. Strip out whatever happened in that last run when things clearly went wrong, and you have a horse that has been consistently placed at its level. The frustrating part for everyone involved is that two second-place finishes suggest Livano Bello has been close, without finding that final gear when it matters.

Jockey Brian Hughes, one of the most experienced jump jockeys in the north of England, has partnered the horse for six of those ten races — all six without a win. That kind of extended association without a breakthrough is unusual. Hughes is not a rider who struggles to get horses winning, so the fact that they have not clicked together into the winner's enclosure yet says something about the horse itself rather than the partnership.

Trainer Micky Hammond operates out of Middleham in North Yorkshire and has been in decent form this season, sending out 25 winners. Livano Bello races at Class 5 level — the entry-level tier of British racing — and has done so five times without winning. That is genuinely the level where a horse like this ought to be picking up races, which makes the blank record harder to explain away. Hammond clearly believes there is a win in the horse somewhere, and given the frequency of placed efforts, it is not a completely unreasonable view.

Still active and raced as recently as a fortnight ago, Livano Bello is not a horse anyone has given up on. Whether that first win eventually arrives or whether this becomes one of those careers defined by near-misses is the question. For now, it remains a horse that turns up, competes honestly, and keeps making its the yard hold their breath just long enough to be disappointed.