Premiere Ligne

The pattern of his recent form tells an interesting story. After that Newmarket win, his last race was 25 days ago, when he finished 25th in what appears to have been a significant test. Before that, he had a sequence of middling efforts: 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 6th. Those results from late summer — including what his trainer Hughie Morrison describes as running up four consecutive seconds in staying races, nearly winning the Cesarewitch Trial and just being beaten — suggest Premiere Ligne had become a horse that could compete hard but struggled to convert into wins. Still, Morrison's yard at East Ilsley has been in fine form, sending out 20 winners this season, and the trainer clearly sees enough in this horse to keep running him.

What really stands out is how Premiere Ligne struggles when asked to compete at the highest levels. In Class 4 races — the top tier of competition — he has never won in six attempts. He is a bread-and-butter horse for his the yard, reliable on his favourite surfaces and at the tracks that suit him, but without the class to win when the competition stiffens. At seven years old and with just two career wins, he is unlikely to become a star, but with the Newmarket win fresh on his record and normal ground conditions in his favour, there is still mileage left in him yet.