Angela's Baar

Keatley, who operates out of Ryedale in North Yorkshire and has already sent out 40 winners this season, is quick to point out that circumstances have not been kind. That debut second at Pontefract, he says, was deeply unlucky — she was beaten, but only just, and the impression she left was a strong one. The next run at Wetherby was effectively a write-off: the ground had dried out to fast, firm conditions, and a horse like Angela's Baar — tall, scopey, built for softer terrain — came home feeling the worse for it. Racing on the wrong type of ground is a bit like asking someone to sprint in ski boots. The result tells you nothing useful.

What is useful is where Keatley wants to take her next: the Convivial race at York, one of the more prestigious end-of-season prizes for three-year-olds in the north of England. That is not a target a trainer mentions lightly. You don't aim a horse at a race like that unless you genuinely believe she belongs there. York is one of Britain's finest tracks, the kind of place where reputations are made, and the fact that this team is thinking along those lines says everything about how highly they rate her at home.

She raced just yesterday, so the team will be watching closely for how she comes out of that run before any final decisions are made. But with 40 winners already on the board this season, Keatley's yard is clearly in fine form — and Angela's Baar, for all her blank win column, may yet prove to be the most interesting horse they have. Some horses take time to find their feet. The hope here is that when the right conditions arrive and the right race comes along, she will make up for lost time in one go.