Wadacre Geisha

What makes the picture a little more encouraging is the recent form. Looking at her last six races in reverse order, she has posted two runner-up finishes in there, suggesting she is competitive enough to threaten without yet delivering the knockout blow. She raced just yesterday, so this is very much a horse in the middle of an active campaign, with the yard still clearly believing there is a performance worth waiting for.

She is trained by Charlie Johnston at Middleham Moor in North Yorkshire, and that is no small thing. Johnston's yard has sent out 131 winners already this season — that is a serious, high-volume operation that knows how to get horses to perform. When a stable of that calibre keeps running a horse, it usually means they see potential that the results page hasn't fully reflected yet. Whether Wadacre Geisha can finally convert one of those near-misses into a win remains the question, but she is in the right hands to find out.