Devil's Peak

The recent form tells an interesting story. Looking at the last six races — finishing fourth, second, fourth, third, fourth, and second — there's a pattern here that racing people find both encouraging and a little frustrating. Devil's Peak keeps getting close, keeps running respectable races, but something always seems to hold it back from going the extra step. Two runner-up finishes suggest the talent is there; the question is whether it can turn those near-misses into a breakthrough.

What makes this worth watching is the stable the horse comes from. John and Thady Gosden, training out of Newmarket in Suffolk, are one of the most respected operations in British racing. Their yard has sent out 140 winners already this season — that's a remarkable volume of success, and it means when they keep running a horse, they believe in it. The Gosdens don't waste time on horses they've given up on. Devil's Peak racing just one day ago shows the team are actively looking for the right opportunity.

At Class 4 level — broadly the middle tier of British racing — Devil's Peak has run three times without winning, which on its own sounds straightforward. But zero from three at that level, combined with those placed efforts, suggests the horse is competitive without yet having found the conditions or the race that suits it perfectly. With a trainer of this calibre in its corner, it seems more a matter of when than if.