Valor Spirit

The recent form tells an interesting story. Reading the last six runs from most recent backwards — 2nd, 6th, 2nd, 5th, 3rd, 14th — you can see a horse that ran poorly once, struggled again, and then found its rhythm. Two runner-up finishes in the last three runs suggest Valor Spirit is racing in good form right now, which makes its next appearance all the more worth watching. It raced just yesterday, so the team clearly has no concerns about keeping it busy.

Most of its races have come at Class 4 level, which sits in the middle of the British racing ladder — competitive enough to be a real test, but not the very top tier. In five races at that level, it is yet to win, going 0 from 5. That is not unusual for a horse still finding its feet at three years old, but it does mean there is a question hanging over whether Valor Spirit can convert those places into wins against this quality of opposition.

Trainer Bryan Smart is based at Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire and has sent out 18 winners this season, which shows a yard operating in decent health. Smart has a reputation for placing his horses sensibly, so the fact that Valor Spirit keeps finishing in the frame suggests the horse is being found races that suit it — it just needs one thing to fall its way to break through. For a horse that has placed in nearly three-quarters of all its races, a first win looks less like an if and more like a when.