Crystal Aurora

What makes the record harder to overlook is where she has been running. Class 5 is the bread-and-butter level of British racing — the races designed for horses who have not quite made it at the higher levels — and Crystal Aurora has not won any of her three starts at that grade. When a horse cannot find a win at the easiest tier available, it raises honest questions about whether that breakthrough is coming at all.

She is trained by Ivan Furtado at his yard in Wiseton, South Yorkshire, and at least the operation around her is in decent health — 34 winners sent out this season is a solid body of work and suggests the team knows how to get horses ready to perform. The fact that Crystal Aurora has not been among them is not through lack of trying; she raced just yesterday, which speaks to a yard keeping her active and looking for opportunities. Sometimes it takes a horse time to find its feet, and Furtado will know better than anyone whether there is a race out there that suits her. For now, though, she remains one of those horses that keeps giving you almost — and almost, in racing, does not pay.