After Many Days

The recent form makes for genuinely intriguing reading. In the last six races, After Many Days has finished second four times, with a fourth and a ninth thrown in. That run of placed finishes — 9-2-2-2-4-2 — suggests a horse that is consistently competitive but seems to find one too good on the day. It is the kind of form that keeps the yard hopeful and punters frustrated in equal measure. The horse raced just yesterday, so it is clearly fit and active.

Jockey Hugh Nugent has been in the saddle for all six of those recent runs and is yet to get the partnership into the winner's spot, though the volume of placed efforts means the pair are rarely out of contention. They simply need one race where the horse in front of them has an off day. Henry Daly's yard in Ludlow, Shropshire, has been in decent nick this season — 17 winners sent out is a healthy return — so the training operation is clearly functioning well. After Many Days has largely been competing at Class 5, the entry level of British racing, which means the horse is not being asked to do anything beyond its station. Winning 0 from 12 at that level, despite the string of placed efforts, does raise the question of whether this particular horse simply finds a way to get beaten.

There is something almost admirable about a horse that keeps finishing second without ever quite breaking through, and After Many Days has that quality in abundance. The name itself feels almost too apt. Whether that elusive first win eventually arrives or not, this is a horse that clearly tries — it just keeps finding one rival it cannot quite get past.