Tilehurst

The level Tilehurst typically races at is Class 4, which sits in the middle of the British racing pyramid — not the glamour end, but not the bottom rung either. At that level, the horse has failed to win in five attempts, a record of 0 from 5 that suggests the competition there is just about strong enough to hold it at bay. It is the kind of horse that makes its trainer pull his hair out slightly: always there, never quite there.

That trainer is Neil Mulholland, whose yard at Limpley Stoke in Wiltshire has been in fine form this season, sending out 60 winners. A busy, productive operation like that tends to know which horses are ready to run and when, so the fact that Tilehurst has been placed so regularly while racing just a day ago suggests it is fit and being campaigned with purpose. Whether a win is coming is another question. Twenty-one months is a long time to wait for a repeat of that Market Rasen breakthrough, and the places, while encouraging on the surface, can only tell a partial story. At some point, close has to become first. For now, Tilehurst remains the horse you keep nearly backing — competitive enough to keep you interested, elusive enough to keep you waiting.