Red Derek

That one win came at Doncaster on 21 October 2022, now over 44 months ago, and he has not managed to repeat the trick since. His last six runs read 3rd, 5th, 6th, 4th, 4th, 6th — competitive enough to suggest he still belongs on a racecourse, but not quite enough to suggest a winner is coming any time soon. He raced just yesterday, so there is nothing wrong with his enthusiasm.

His preferred trip is a mile and three to a mile and four furlongs — a proper middle distance test — where he has run 13 times and won once (8%), which is actually his best conversion rate anywhere. At Class 5, the level where he does most of his racing, he has won 1 from 17 (6%). Class 5 is the bread-and-butter level of British racing, the kind of race that rarely makes the television highlights but fills out cards up and down the country. The fact that even here Red Derek finds winning difficult tells you something about how fine the margins are in this sport.

He is trained by Lisa Williamson, based at Kelsall in Cheshire, whose yard has sent out six winners already this season — a steady, functioning operation. Jockey Kieran O'Neill has partnered Red Derek eight times and is the one who steered him to his only career victory; together they win roughly 1 in every 8 races (12%), which is actually a decent ratio given how rarely Red Derek wins at all. If O'Neill is booked, it is probably the combination that gives him the best chance of a second chapter. At ten years old, time is not exactly on his side — but then, he raced yesterday, so clearly nobody has told him that.