Star Of Markinch

The statistics here are genuinely eye-opening. Twenty-four of those 42 races have come at Class 6, the entry level of British racing, and Star Of Markinch has not won a single one of them. That is the easiest level available, where horses are essentially competing for the chance to prove they belong anywhere at all. Seven places from 42 races means this horse has finished in the top three roughly once every six attempts — close enough to suggest it is trying, but never quite there. Jockey Amie Waugh has had 16 of those rides without a winner between them, which is a tough run by any measure.

The recent form is actually not as bleak as the overall record suggests. Finishing fourth, fourth, fourth, tenth, seventh, and fifth in the last six races shows a horse that is consistently in the conversation, if not the result. Three consecutive fourth-place finishes in particular hints at a horse that competes honestly and finds its level — it just happens that its level sits one place outside what anyone celebrates. Rutherford's yard has sent out seven winners this season, so the operation clearly knows how to get a horse to win. Star Of Markinch, at ten years old, remains the curious exception.

What makes this horse worth knowing about is not success but stubbornness. It keeps turning up, keeps finishing in the pack, keeps defying the obvious question of why it is still in training. For some horses, the value is in the winning. For Star Of Markinch, apparently, it is simply in the running.