Smithfield

What gives the situation some hope is who is training it. Gavin Cromwell's yard in Navan, Co. Meath has sent out 96 winners already this season, which tells you this is a busy, successful operation that knows how to get horses ready to perform. Cromwell isn't a trainer who struggles to find the winner's enclosure — quite the opposite. The fact that a yard operating at that level keeps Smithfield in training suggests they still believe there's a race to be won somewhere down the line. Smithfield raced just one day ago, so this is very much a horse still in the thick of its career, not one being wound down. Whether that belief is rewarded remains the only interesting question left to answer.