Temptationinmilan

The highlight reel is brief but real. The first win came at Listowel in September 2022, and the second followed at Navan in February 2023 — and that Navan victory is now 38 months in the rear-view mirror. A gap that long without a win is significant. It suggests the horse has either been finding the competition a touch too strong, or that age and wear are starting to take their toll. At 10, horses are not getting faster.

Recent form makes for fairly grim reading. The last six races have produced two non-completions and finishes of 14th, 9th, 6th, and 4th — working backwards through the card with a faint improvement that never quite tips over into something exciting. A 4th is close enough to keep the yard interested, but this horse has not troubled the winner's enclosure in over three years.

Philip Byrnes has been the regular partner in the saddle, riding Temptationinmilan in 16 of its 30 races and sharing that one win together. That works out to a win rate of around 1 in every 16 rides — modest, but loyalty counts for something in this sport, and a jockey who knows a horse well can be an asset even when the results are not sparkling.

After a 70-day break — short enough to call a freshening-up rather than a comeback — Temptationinmilan heads back to the track. Whether the rest has done any good is the question. Horses can occasionally surprise after a short spell away, but with form this quiet and an age working against it, this one needs to find something it has not shown in a long time.