Pepper Fizz

The recent form reads 3-5-6-12-6-5, which shows a horse bouncing around the placings but struggling to get over the line. That 12th place in the middle of the sequence stands out as a real dip, but the ability to return to fifth and sixth suggests Pepper Fizz hasn't given up trying. Trainer Georgina Nicholls, based at Kingston Lisle in Oxfordshire, has sent out eleven winners already this season, so there's competence in the yard. The question is whether this particular horse simply isn't quite good enough, or whether it's one of those late bloomers that needs time and patience to click.

Class 5 races—the lower tier of British racing—have been particularly unkind, with zero wins from four attempts at that level. It's early days for a 3-year-old, and racing just a day ago shows the horse is still active and getting regular opportunities. Sometimes horses need twenty or thirty races to find their rhythm. Sometimes they don't. Either way, Pepper Fizz will get more chances to prove what it's made of.