Passengerontheship

The recent form makes for interesting reading. In its last six races, Passengerontheship has finished second three times, which suggests it is rarely out of contention but keeps finding one or two too good on the day. A sixth and an eighth are the blips, but the cluster of placed efforts is the thread worth following. Raced just yesterday, this is a horse very much in the thick of its season.

Jockey Jonathan England has been the regular partner for most of the partnership's shared career, riding in eight of the nine races together without a winner between them. That said, given the horse's tendency to finish second rather than trail in down the field, the combination has clearly worked in a functional sense — they just need one to fall their way. Sam England, who trains from Guiseley in West Yorkshire, has had a productive season with 53 winners on the board, so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse to win. The fact that Passengerontheship hasn't joined that tally yet is one of those small frustrations that keeps racing interesting.

Competing mostly at Class 5 — the bread-and-butter level of British racing — the horse has gone 0 from 4 at that tier, which means even at the level it is most often asked to compete at, the winning line has stayed out of reach. At seven, time is not infinite, but horses at this level can find their moment late, and three places from nine races suggests this is not a horse simply making up the numbers.