Mister McGregor

His recent form tells an interesting story. Two of his last six runs have produced second-place finishes, which shows he is competitive enough to be thereabouts at the finish — he just cannot quite get over the line first. The 14th-place effort buried in that sequence suggests he has his off days too, but back-to-back second places in runs five and one ago hint that there might be a win in him somewhere, if everything clicks on the right day.

He races most often at Class 5 level, which is the entry level of British racing — the kind of race where the horses are closely matched and nobody is expected to be a world-beater. Even at that level, though, Mister McGregor has not managed a win in seven attempts. His regular partner in the saddle is jockey Faye McManoman, and together they have yet to trouble the scorer in seven races as a combination — though again, the raw numbers do not tell you how close they have come.

He is trained by Michael Mullineaux at a small yard in Alpraham, Cheshire, which has sent out four winners this season — so the team clearly knows how to get a horse ready to win. That makes Mister McGregor something of a puzzle. He is not a lost cause — a horse that keeps finishing second is doing something right — but at four years old, time is not on his side if he is going to shed his winless record. He raced just yesterday, which means he is fit and active. Somewhere out there, hopefully, is a race with his name on it.