Red Moon

That sole victory came at Salisbury on 14 June, and it remains his most recent triumph four months on. The gap is telling. His last six races show inconsistent form — a seventh place followed by a fifth, two more fifths, a third, and a placing — with nothing to suggest an imminent return to the winner's enclosure. Yet the horse raced just yesterday and is still actively campaigned, so his yard clearly believes there is more to come.

Red Moon runs for Jack Channon's yard at West Ilsley in Berkshire, which has sent out 46 winners already this season and clearly knows how to bring a horse to the track in winning order. At three years old, the horse is still developing, and horses of this age can take time to find their true level. The fact that he has identified a distance range where he runs better — the seven-furlong to mile range — gives the yard something concrete to work with. If the yard can get him back to conditions that suit, and plot a race where he can reproduce something like his Salisbury performance, Red Moon could yet deliver another winning day.