Pacific Glory

The form figures read 4-9-4-2 going back through the season, and that most recent second place is the one to focus on. A horse finishing second in its latest race is a horse that came agonisingly close — and for a yard still waiting on that first win, it is exactly the kind of performance that suggests a breakthrough might not be far away.

Pacific Glory is trained by T D Easterby at Great Habton in North Yorkshire, and that is a stable very much worth paying attention to. The yard has sent out 128 winners already this season — a genuinely impressive output that speaks to a large, well-managed operation with the experience to know when a horse is ready to run and when to be patient. Backing a horse from a yard in that kind of form is never a bad starting point, and Pacific Glory represents one of those projects where the trainer clearly sees something worth persevering with.

At three years old, there is still plenty of time. Many horses of this age are still learning their trade and finding their feet against more experienced rivals, and a second place from the most recent outing is exactly the kind of upward curve that keeps the yard — the team, the trainer — believing. If Pacific Glory can reproduce that effort and just find a little more on the day, a first win is a realistic next step rather than a distant ambition.