Montpellier Green

The horse performs noticeably better over middle distances between seven furlongs and a mile, where he has won 1 of his 5 races, a 20 percent win rate that stands in sharp contrast to his overall record. However, this advantage has not translated into recent success. His last six runs have yielded no wins — a sequence of fifth, eighth, tenth, eleventh, ninth, and eighth placings that shows declining form or horses simply running better than him. At Class 4 level, the middle tier of competitive racing, he has failed to win in seven attempts, suggesting that when races tighten up even slightly, he falls away.

Montpellier Green races for the yard of Ian Williams at Portway in Worcestershire, a stable that has sent out 96 winners this season and clearly operates at a far higher level of success than his individual record reflects. That he remains in active training, with his most recent race just a day ago, indicates the the yard still see something worth pursuing. Whether that faith will be rewarded remains uncertain — at this stage of his career, with so little to show, he appears a horse unlikely to develop into anything more than a minor performer on the fringes of the sport.