Royal Time

What makes Royal Time's form even more sobering is the length of time since that breakthrough win. Twenty-one months have now passed, and he has not added to his tally despite remaining active — he raced just a day ago. His recent form shows him chasing places rather than wins: third, seventh, fourth, third again, and fifth across his last six runs suggest he remains competitive enough to trouble the judge but not quite sharp enough to get his head in front. The one bright spot in his record is his connection with jockey Eoin Staples, who has ridden him five times and managed a 20 percent win rate from those rides — two in every ten starts, which is substantially better than Royal Time's overall average. That partnership produced the Naas win, and while they have not repeated that success since, there is at least a glimmer of compatibility there.

Royal Time races for trainer Christian Williams at Ogmore-By-Sea in Glamorgan, a yard that has found plenty of winners this season with twenty-five successes to its name. The stable clearly knows how to get horses to the winner's enclosure, even if Royal Time has proved stubbornly resistant to joining that group again.