Rhyme Dust

That Salisbury win came almost ten months ago now, and the recent form makes for sobering reading: a blank, then a fourth, a sixth, a ninth, a third, and a sixth in the six races since. The ninth is the one that stands out — there will have been a day where it just did not fire — but the third shows a horse still capable of getting competitive when things fall right. It raced just yesterday, so the team clearly believe there is another good run in there somewhere.

What gives Rhyme Dust a layer of genuine interest is the yard behind it. Ralph Beckett's operation in Kimpton, Hampshire has sent out 107 winners already this season, which is the kind of output that marks out one of the more productive training yards in the country. When a stable of that calibre keeps running a horse, it usually means they see something worth persisting with. Whether Rhyme Dust can find its way back to the winner's enclosure and justify that patience is the question — but with a trainer in that kind of form, you would not write it off entirely.