Moltophino

That one career win came at The Curragh, one of Irish racing's most prestigious venues, which is no small thing. Getting off the mark there, rather than at a smaller track on a quiet afternoon, suggests Moltophino is capable of performing when the standard is reasonable. The five-year-old is trained by John Andrew Kinsella out of Rathdrum in County Wicklow — a yard that has sent out five winners already this season, so there is form in the operation. Chris Hayes rides Moltophino most regularly, and together they have won 1 from 6 races — a 17% win rate, or roughly 1 in every 6 times they team up, which is actually a considerably better return than the horse's overall career average.

The recent form is harder to spin. Moltophino's last six runs read 5-4-5-20-9-7 going backwards, meaning a couple of tidy finishes a few runs ago have given way to performances further back in the field. A twentieth-place finish sits in there, which is the kind of run that suggests something wasn't quite right on the day. The horse raced just yesterday, so it is clearly being kept busy, and the team evidently believes there is a race to be won with it somewhere. At 5 years old, there is still time to add to that solitary victory. Whether the next opportunity comes around soon enough to matter is the question Moltophino's supporters will be asking.