Sea Her Excel

Most of her racing has come at Class 5 level, which is the entry-level tier of British racing — essentially the races where horses are still finding their feet and working out where they belong. She has run three times at that level without winning, which is not alarming at this stage, but it does suggest she will need to find a bit more to start troubling the judge. The hopeful reading is that her two third-place finishes show she belongs in these races — she is not being outclassed, just outrun at the crucial moment.

She ran just one day ago, which means she is as fit and race-ready as she will ever be. Her trainer Ivan Furtado, based in Wiseton in South Yorkshire, has had a productive season — 34 winners sent out this year is a solid return for a yard of this size, and it suggests there is genuine ability in the team to place horses where they can win. The fact that Furtado keeps running Sea Her Excel tells you the yard believes there is a race to be won with her somewhere. Finding that race — the right distance, the right conditions, the right day — is the puzzle every trainer faces with a young horse still searching for that breakthrough. For Sea Her Excel, it feels like a question of when rather than if.