My Lovely Horse

The recent form makes for uncomfortable reading too. A third-place finish a few races back offered a flicker of promise, but since then it has drifted back to sixth and eighth, and the dashes in that sequence — races where it either unseated, fell, or was pulled up — mean the picture is even patchier than the numbers suggest. It raced just yesterday, so at least fitness is not in question.

Jockey James Turner has stuck with the horse through five of those nine races together, and they are yet to trouble the judge between them. That kind of loyalty from a jockey is admirable, but five rides without a win or a place is a partnership still searching for its moment. Trainer David Bridgwater, based in Stow-on-the-Wold in the Gloucestershire countryside, has sent out six winners this season, which shows the yard is capable of getting horses ready to win. My Lovely Horse simply has not been one of them yet. It typically runs in Class 4 races — a mid-tier level where the competition is solid but not the very best — and has drawn a blank in all four starts at that level.

There may well be a day when everything clicks for this horse. Racing does occasionally produce those stories. But right now, My Lovely Horse is one for the patient, and perhaps the very patient at that.