Paymelater

The recent form makes for difficult reading. Looking at the last six races, the best result was a fourth-place finish — twice — with a seventh and a sixth sprinkled in for good measure. There is no obvious upward curve here, no sense that a breakthrough is just around the corner. The horse raced just one day ago, so it is clearly still active and being given every opportunity, but the performances have plateaued rather than improved.

Mr N Gault has been the regular jockey, partnering Paymelater in seven of its twelve races together. That partnership has yet to produce a single win — 0 from 7 — which is a long run without reward for a rider who keeps coming back. To put that in perspective, even a modest horse winning one in every ten races would have given them something to celebrate by now. The fact that Gault keeps getting the ride suggests the team still believes something is there, but the evidence on the track has not backed that up.

At seven years old, Paymelater is not a young project waiting to develop. Most horses are hitting their peak around this age, not still searching for a first win. Three placed finishes show the horse is not disgracing itself — it is competitive enough to finish near the front — but there is a meaningful difference between placing and winning, and Paymelater has not yet bridged that gap. The team will be hoping that changes soon, because the window for it to happen is getting smaller.