Lumiere Du Large

The recent form figures tell an interesting story. That sequence of 8-3-2-8-5-4 shows a horse that can run well — a second and a third are genuinely competitive efforts — but also one that goes missing on its worst days, as those two eighth-place finishes suggest. It raced just yesterday, so it is clearly fit and active, and whoever is making the decisions clearly believes there is a win in this horse somewhere.

What makes the situation particularly intriguing is the yard behind it. Gordon Elliott's operation at Longwood in County Meath is one of the most powerful in Irish racing, and this season alone has sent out 210 winners — that is not a yard that wastes time on horses it has given up on. When a trainer of that calibre keeps running a horse that has not won in six attempts, it usually means they are seeing something in training that the racecourse form has not yet reflected. Whether Lumiere Du Large can finally turn that promise into a win is the question worth watching.