Sheik Yerbouti

The recent form tells the story of a horse who has been knocking on the door. His last six outings read 1-5-7-3-11, which means a win (finally), then two places tucked in there at positions 3 and 5, alongside some tougher days further back. Over his seven-race career, he has won just the once and placed twice more, which puts his overall record at a pretty modest 14 percent win rate — roughly 1 win from every 7 races. That is not the kind of win rate that gets people excited, but for a horse who had waited this long for a win, the victory at Wolverhampton is the sort of confidence booster he needed.

Grace Harris, his trainer at Shirenewton in Gwent, has had a solid season in terms of numbers — the yard has already sent out 31 winners — so there is some decent form on the premises. Whether Sheik Yerbouti can build on this single win and start converting more of those minor placings into victories remains to be seen, but at the very least he has shown he belongs in races. He is still actively racing and will get more chances to prove he can repeat the trick.