Velvet And Vine

The recent form does offer a sliver of encouragement, if you squint at it. A fourth-place finish five races ago is the best showing in the sequence, sandwiched between a string of double-figure finishes. The pattern — 13th, then 4th, then 8th, 8th, 10th, 12th — suggests that fourth was something of a flash rather than the start of a turn in fortunes. The last four runs have all been outside the top eight, and the most recent race was just yesterday, so there has been no time to regroup or reassess.

Robbie Colgan has partnered Velvet And Vine six times and is yet to get the best out of the horse — or perhaps more accurately, the horse has yet to produce the best for him. Zero wins from six attempts together is a partnership that has not clicked, at least in terms of results. Whether that changes remains to be seen, but the current evidence is not encouraging. At six years old, with no win on the board and recent form pointing in the wrong direction, Velvet And Vine is one of those horses that tests the patience of everyone involved — and asks the rest of us to find the interest in the trying rather than the winning.