So Must I

The worry is the drought since. Eight months have passed since that Dundalk victory, and So Must I has not troubled the judge since, though recent form shows some promise — three fourth-place finishes in the last six outings suggest the horse is competitive rather than out of its depth. That said, two weeks without a race followed by just fourteen days back in action points to a yard trying to find the right spot, the right conditions, the right race for a horse that has shown it can win but has not yet learned to do it regularly.

Joseph Patrick O'Brien's Owning Hill yard is not spinning its wheels — 160 winners sent out this season is serious form — so the consistent placement of So Must I near the money, even in a poor run of results, suggests the trainer believes there is more to come. Whether the horse finds that again at its optimal distance remains to be seen, but the pattern is there: back to a mile and a quarter or a mile and three furlongs, and So Must I becomes a different, sharper prospect.