Polly Poppins

Her recent form makes for interesting reading. A third-place finish two races back showed she can still run into a frame, and with a run just yesterday she is clearly an active, healthy horse who is being kept busy. The concern is that across her last six races the results have been inconsistent — a placing here, then a fifth, then a ninth — without any real upward trend to suggest a win is imminent.

Jockey Gavin Brouder has been the man in the saddle for five of those races and the pair have yet to click in the way a trainer would hope, with no wins to show from that partnership. That is not necessarily a knock on either of them — sometimes a horse and rider combination simply needs more time, or a different track, or a day when everything falls into place. But five attempts without a winner does sharpen the question of whether a change might shake something loose.

At four years old, Polly Poppins is not a young horse with unlimited time on her side, but she is not done either. Some horses take longer to find their moment than others, and the fact that she keeps running — and keeps getting placed — means the team clearly believe there is a win in her somewhere. Whether they are right is the question racing fans will be watching closely.