Balance Of Trade

What is interesting about Balance Of Trade right now is the recent shift in form. Over the last six races, the horse has finished 9th, 8th, 8th, 5th, 5th, and 4th. That last run — just a day ago — was the best performance in that sequence, and it represents genuine progress. The jump from two eighth-place finishes to a pair of fifths, then a fourth, suggests the horse is finally finding a bit of rhythm and perhaps starting to understand what is asked of it. For a horse that has shown almost nothing in its first 17 outings, a fourth-place finish might look routine to outsiders, but it is the kind of detail that catches a trainer's eye and keeps a horse in work.

Gary Rutherford's yard at Jedburgh has sent out seven winners already this season, so there is competence on the training side. Balance Of Trade is clearly not his headline act, but the small improvements in recent weeks hint that this horse may eventually get its head in front — or it may simply remain a journeyman that occasionally finds minor placings. Either way, it is still racing and still trying, which is what counts.