Samuel Colt

The recent form makes for uncomfortable reading. Over the last six races, Samuel Colt has finished 12th, 5th, 22nd, 4th, 10th, and 4th — reading from oldest to most recent, it is a sequence that flickers with brief encouragement before the wheels come off completely. That 22nd-place finish stands out as a particularly rough afternoon. To the horse's credit, the two most recent runs have been competitive enough — fourth and tenth — so there are faint signs of life, and crucially Samuel Colt raced just yesterday, meaning whatever form is there, it is being tested right now.

The trainer is Amanda Perrett, whose yard sits in Pulborough in West Sussex and has sent out five winners already this season. Perrett is a methodical, experienced handler who tends to place her horses thoughtfully, and the fact that Samuel Colt keeps appearing at the track suggests she sees something worth persisting with. Whether that patience eventually pays off is the question — because 33 months is a long time to go without adding to your tally, and at five years old, Samuel Colt is not getting any younger. The window for turning potential into results does not stay open forever.

What keeps the profile from being simply bleak is that the horse clearly has the ability to win at a good level — The Curragh is not somewhere ordinary horses get the job done. The gap between that performance and what has followed is the puzzle that Perrett and her team are still trying to solve. For now, Samuel Colt remains one of those horses that demands a second look every time it lines up, because the evidence says it can do it. It just hasn't done it in a very long time.