Saxon Prince

That second-place finish is the one bright spot worth holding onto. It shows Saxon Prince can get competitive when things fall right, but turning those near-misses into victories has proven beyond it so far. Most of its racing has come at Class 5 level, which is the bread-and-butter end of British racing — the races where horses who haven't been winning are given every opportunity to do so. Going winless in five races at that level is a honest reflection of where Saxon Prince currently sits.

The horse is trained by J & S Quinn, a well-established yard based at Norton in North Yorkshire that has sent out 44 winners this season — so this is clearly a team that knows how to get horses winning. The fact that Saxon Prince hasn't broken through yet isn't for lack of capable handling. It raced just yesterday, which means it's fit and active, and at three years old there is still time for things to click. Some horses simply take a while to figure it all out. Whether Saxon Prince is one of those, or whether it remains a horse that places but never wins, is the question the Quinn yard will be hoping to answer soon.