Manoir De Mirande

The recent form makes for interesting reading. In five of the last six races, Manoir De Mirande has returned a placing or better, with back-to-back thirds followed by a second and another third. That kind of consistency without a win can be either frustrating or encouraging depending on how you look at it — the horse clearly knows what it is doing, it just hasn't managed to be first past the post when it matters. One blip, a twelfth-place finish, sits in that sequence, but the horse has bounced back from it without any apparent lasting effect.

The partnership with Jack Kennedy is worth noting. Kennedy is one of the most respected jump jockeys in Ireland, and he has ridden Manoir De Mirande in five of its six races — yet the win still has not come. Zero wins from five rides together is not a reflection on Kennedy's ability, more a sign that this horse is proving a stubborn puzzle to solve. They clearly keep coming back to each other, which suggests the team believes the win is coming.

Gordon Elliott's yard at Longwood in County Meath is one of the most powerful operations in jump racing. With 210 winners already on the board this season alone, Elliott is the kind of trainer who regularly turns promising horses into serious ones. When a horse sits in a stable producing that volume of winners and it hasn't won yet, you can be fairly sure the team hasn't given up on it. Manoir De Mirande raced just yesterday, so clearly the yard — the yard, rather — are keeping it busy and keeping the faith. At four years old, there is plenty of time yet.