D'Gesteevo

The partnership with jockey Lorcan Williams hasn't cracked the code either. The pair have ridden together five times without a win to show for it, and D'Gesteevo's recent form — a string of pulled-up or last-place finishes punctuated by a solitary ninth — suggests a horse that has been struggling to complete or compete at any meaningful level. At Class 5, the lowest tier of British racing, you're already looking at the most accessible level of the sport. Failing to win or place across six races at that grade is a signal that something significant has been getting in the way, whether that's fitness, preference for certain conditions, or simply a horse that hasn't found its groove.

That said, trainer Jeremy Scott's yard at Brompton Regis is far from a struggling operation — 20 winners this season is a healthy tally, and Scott clearly knows how to get a horse performing. The fact that D'Gesteevo is still being entered and raced suggests the team believes there is something worth persisting with. Sometimes a horse simply takes longer to show what it can do, and a trainer with a good season behind them doesn't run a horse eleven times out of habit. Whether that patience pays off is the one genuinely open question surrounding D'Gesteevo right now.