Montu

Trained by Jack Jones out of Newmarket, Montu races in the lowest tier of the sport — Class 6 races, where the competition is at its most accessible. In four races at that level, Montu is yet to win, which raises a fair question: if a horse can't win here, where can it? To be fair, placing three times overall suggests there is ability lurking somewhere, but turning promise into a result remains the challenge. Jones's yard has had a productive season, sending out 35 winners, so the support team clearly knows how to get horses over the line — Montu just hasn't been one of them yet.

What does give the horse's followers something to hold onto is the recent form. Looking at the last six races — with a gap in the sequence where Montu presumably didn't run — the results read third, second, a missed race, second, then sixth and seventh before that. So the two worst performances came first, and the horse has since shown genuine improvement, twice finishing as runner-up. Montu raced just yesterday, which tells you this is very much an active, in-form campaign rather than a horse being gently managed through the season. Whether that current momentum is finally enough to get a nose in front remains the question everyone connected to the yard will be asking.