Noble Grace

The recent form makes for mixed reading. A fourth-place finish two races ago is the brightest moment in the last six, sandwiched between a seventh and a ninth, with three runs before that offering nothing to shout about either. There is no clear upward curve here, which is what the team at Warren Greatrex's yard will be hoping to find.

Greatrex operates out of Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, and his yard has been in fine form this season — 50 winners and counting, which is a healthy return for any training operation. That context makes Noble Grace something of an outlier in the string, because the results simply haven't come. Regular partner James Bowen has been aboard for seven of those ten races and the pair are yet to cross the line first together, though it would be unfair to single either horse or jockey out when the whole picture has been one of near-misses and disappointments. Noble Grace has raced most often at Class 4 level — the middle tier of everyday racing, nothing too demanding — and has drawn a blank in all three of those appearances.

The one saving grace, so to speak, is that Noble Grace raced just yesterday, meaning the team clearly haven't given up. At five years old there is still time to find the key, and trainers like Greatrex, whose yard is firing on all cylinders this season, tend to know when a horse is worth persisting with. Whether Noble Grace can finally convert that solitary place into a win remains the question — but for now, the waiting goes on.