Rydale Frosty

The recent form, however, makes for tougher reading. Six races without a win, with the best finishes in that run being a pair of fourth places, suggests Rydale Frosty is finding consistency hard to come by. Finishing fourth or fifth is not nothing — it means the horse is competitive and not being embarrassed — but it also means the winner's enclosure has felt a long way away since that Windsor breakthrough.

What adds an interesting layer is where this horse has been asked to compete. Four of its nine races have come at the sport's highest level, Class 1 contests — the kind of races that attract the very best horses in the country. Rydale Frosty has not won any of those, which is not a surprise, but the fact that Simcock's team have put the horse in those races at all suggests they believe it belongs in good company. Simcock himself is one of the more respected trainers operating out of Newmarket, with 39 winners already on the board this season, so decisions about which races to enter are not made lightly.

Rydale Frosty raced just yesterday and remains very much an active participant this season. At three years old, there is still time for the picture to develop. Horses this age are still maturing, and one win from nine races with a clutch of placed efforts is far from a closed chapter. Whether that Windsor win turns out to be the start of something or a moment that proves hard to build on is the question worth watching.