Time In A Bottle

The recent form makes the pattern clear. In the last six outings, Time In A Bottle has managed two second-place finishes and a fourth, but has also failed to place in three starts. It raced just yesterday, which shows the horse is still actively campaigned and clearly still has the yard keen enough to keep running it. Jockey Mr J H Williamson has partnered it five times without a breakthrough, though the lack of success in that partnership reflects the broader struggle rather than any particular fault.

What might offer Time In A Bottle a small glimmer of hope is that it runs for Dan Skelton's yard at Alcester, a training operation that has sent out 198 winners this season — one of the most prolific in the country. That kind of firepower suggests the yard knows how to get horses to the line, but it also underlines that a horse without a win after 11 races is genuinely finding it hard to compete at whatever level it is being aimed at. Time In A Bottle will need to turn things around quickly if it is to add that elusive first victory to its record.