Antoine De Paris

The recent form makes for difficult reading. Over the last six races, the best finishing position recorded is ninth, with a fourteenth thrown in for good measure. That Sligo win now sits nine months in the rearview mirror, and the partnership with regular jockey Robert Whearty hasn't helped unlock anything — they've ridden together five times without a win between them, a record that raises genuine questions about whether the combination is clicking.

What does offer a small reason for optimism is the distance profile. At a mile and three furlongs to a mile and four furlongs, Antoine De Paris has won 1 from 4 races — a 25% win rate, which translates to winning 1 in every 4 races at that trip. In the context of everything else, that's actually the most compelling number in the file. It suggests the horse has a preferred range, and when conditions align — the right trip, the right track — there's a version of this horse that can compete.

The yard behind it, Noel C Kelly's operation based in Draperstown, Co. Derry, has sent out 14 winners already this season, so this isn't a struggling training centre running on empty. Kelly clearly knows how to get horses winning. The challenge is finding the right spot for a horse whose form has been patchy at best, and getting those wins to come somewhere other than Sligo.