Obsidian Verse

The recent form makes for interesting reading: reading back through the last six runs, those results go 6-5-1-8-5-4 — a mixture of mid-pack finishes bookending that one breakthrough win. The 8th-place effort stands out as a low point, but a placed finish is also tucked in there, which suggests a horse that is competitive even on its quieter days. At 14% across all its races — roughly 1 win from every 7 — Obsidian Verse has not yet found a level where it wins consistently, but it has found one track where everything clicked.

That Southwell victory came three months ago, and the horse raced again just yesterday, so the team clearly believes there is more to come. James Fanshawe's Newmarket yard is one of the more productive operations in training right now — 44 winners this season is a serious number, and it tells you the yard is not running horses for the sake of it. When Fanshawe sends one out, there is usually a plan behind it.

One puzzle worth watching is the class question. Obsidian Verse has run three times at Class 4 level — the kind of races where the competition is solid but not elite — and has yet to win at that grade, losing all three. The sole win came elsewhere in the programme. Whether the team can find a route to winning at Class 4 or whether they drop down to find easier pickings will be one of the more telling decisions in this horse's immediate future. At three years old, there is still plenty of time to answer that question.