Al What

The recent form tells a difficult story. Going back through the last six races, the finishes read 6-6-11-11-9-4, and while that fourth-place effort stands out as a rare moment of promise, the two eleventh-place finishes in the middle of that sequence suggest a horse that has genuinely struggled to land a blow against its rivals. It raced just yesterday, so whatever conclusions the team at Castletown have drawn, they're clearly still believing there's something worth finding.

That belief matters, because the yard behind this horse is not short of confidence right now. Noel Meade has sent out 42 winners this season from his base in Co Meath, which is the kind of form that says his operation knows what it's doing. When a trainer of that calibre keeps running a horse, it usually means they see something the form book hasn't reflected yet — or they're waiting patiently for the right opportunity to click. Whether Al What can finally reward that patience is the open question, but with a race just yesterday and presumably more to come, the story isn't finished yet.