Asian Journey

The recent form makes for slightly agonising reading: 3-2-3-5-4-5 in the last six outings (reading from earliest to most recent), including a runner-up finish that will have had the yard holding their breath. That second place is the closest Asian Journey has come, and the fact that the horse keeps finishing in and around the frame suggests the winning performance is theoretically in there somewhere. Whether it ever arrives is the question every race asks afresh.

Most of Asian Journey's racing has come at Class 5 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, where the competition is modest by design and where horses like this are supposed to be winning. Five races at that level without a single victory is a stat that raises an eyebrow. It is not that the horse is being outclassed; it is simply being outrun at the finish by rivals it should, on paper, be beating.

The trainer is Sam England, based in Guiseley in West Yorkshire, and the yard is clearly in decent health — 49 winners sent out this season is a solid number for an operation of this size, which makes Asian Journey something of an outlier in the string. England is evidently capable of getting horses to win. This one just has not obliged yet.

Asian Journey raced just yesterday, so this is a horse in the thick of its campaign right now. The form is fresh, the question is live, and somewhere out there is presumably a race with Asian Journey's name on it. Sixteen attempts in and still waiting — but still showing up, still placing, still making punters nervous in the final furlong. At some point, that has to count for something.