Curious Mrs Fox

Her recent form tells a consistent story. Over her last six races, she has finished as high as third but never better, with two fourth-place finishes and a pair of sixth-place efforts sandwiched in between. She is still racing regularly—she was out just a day ago—which suggests the yard keeps finding opportunities where she might squeeze into the frame. Amie Waugh, her most frequent partner, has partnered her nine times without getting the job done. David Thompson's yard at Bolam, in County Durham, has saddled nine winners this season, but Curious Mrs Fox is not one of them and shows no sign of becoming one. At the level where she typically competes—Class 6 racing, the lowest grade—she has run 22 times and never won. Even when the competition is supposed to be easiest, she cannot break through. For a horse still active and still being ridden, there is a kind of persistence in her profile: she turns up, she runs, she comes close to a paying place now and then, but she never quite gets there.