Marche d'Aligre

The most interesting thing about Marche d'Aligre is what the numbers suggest about where the ceiling might be. The yard has been running at three races at Class 2 level — one of the top tiers of British racing — and hasn't won any of them. That's not unusual; Class 2 races attract serious horses, and simply being entered at that level is a statement of ambition from trainer Jamie Snowden's Lambourn operation. Snowden has sent out 82 winners this season, so this is a yard that clearly knows how to get horses to perform. Marche d'Aligre just hasn't cracked the top level yet.

Over longer distances — two miles and beyond — the picture is slightly more encouraging. One win from six races at that trip works out at roughly 1 in 6, or about 17%, which is a better return than the overall career record suggests. Stamina appears to be the horse's strongest suit, and the Wetherby win came over that kind of trip. Jockey Gavin Sheehan has been in the saddle for eight of the eleven races together, winning once — so about 1 in every 8 rides ends in victory, which is modest but consistent with how the horse has performed generally.

Raced just yesterday and still active, Marche d'Aligre is very much mid-campaign. The form figures from the last six runs — two placed efforts sandwiched around a couple of blanks and an eighth — paint the picture of a horse hovering just outside the prizes more often than not. Whether that Wetherby win turns out to be the first of many or remains the high-water mark of the career depends on what happens next, but Snowden's yard clearly hasn't given up on finding the right opportunity.