Nicely Curved

The recent form makes for interesting reading. A second-place finish in the most recent completed run, followed by two thirds, suggests this is a horse that finds its way into the finish but gets chinned at the last moment. The blank in the sequence — that dash — indicates a race where no finishing position was recorded, which sometimes points to an unsatisfactory run rather than a poor one. What is clear is that Nicely Curved has been finding form at just the right time: the last three completed runs have all been placed efforts, which is a decent sequence however you look at it.

The horse runs out of Hayley Burton's yard in Newmarket, one of the great centres of British racing, where the flat work is world-class and competition for stable resources is fierce. Burton's team has sent out seven winners this season, which shows the yard is operating well. Nicely Curved raced just one day ago, so this is a horse right in the middle of its campaign — fresh results, active and clearly fit. The question now is whether it can turn those places into a first win before the season moves on.