Al Amirah

Sean D Bowen has been in the saddle for five of those seven races and the pair are yet to trouble the judge together, sitting at zero wins from five attempts. That is not necessarily a damning statistic — jockey and horse combinations sometimes take time to find their rhythm — but it does suggest that whatever the missing ingredient is, the current partnership has not yet unlocked it. Bowen is an experienced rider, so the issue is unlikely to be a lack of horsemanship.

Ismail Mohammed trains Al Amirah out of Newmarket, which is about as central to British racing as it gets — the town is effectively the sport's headquarters, home to some of the sharpest yards in the country. Mohammed's team has sent out 14 winners this season, which shows the yard is capable of getting horses to win. Al Amirah raced just yesterday, so the yard are clearly keeping her busy and looking for opportunities. Sometimes that persistence pays off — a horse can look frustrating for months and then suddenly find the right race at the right moment. Whether Al Amirah has that breakthrough in her remains to be seen, but the team clearly believes it is worth finding out.