Don Simon

Across 12 races he has yet to win, though he has finished in the top four on four occasions — enough to suggest he belongs on a racecourse, just not quite enough to seal the deal. His recent sequence of 7th, 10th, 2nd, a blank, 8th, and 9th tells a story of inconsistency, with that second-place finish the one moment where he got genuinely close. According to Dunlop, it was agonisingly close — a short head the margin at Chelmsford last time out, in a race the team targeted specifically for its prize money. Losing by a nose when you have not yet won a race is the sort of thing that lodges in the memory.

Part of the puzzle is figuring out exactly what brings the best out of him. Dunlop has been candid about his uncertainty over distance, admitting he is not fully convinced Don Simon stays a mile and six furlongs, despite running over it. The plan, it seems, is to step back to a mile and four furlongs on turf — a trip he has tried once before — and see if that unlocks something. It is a logical call. A horse by Sea The Stars has every right to be effective over that distance, and sometimes a horse simply needs conditions to click into place.

At five, he is not young, but he is not finished either. Ed Dunlop's yard has sent out 36 winners this season, so the operation clearly knows how to get horses performing. Don Simon has had a disrupted journey — missing much of his two-year-old season due to a late birth — which means he may simply have needed more time than most. Whether turf, a mile and four furlongs, and a change of scenery can finally turn a short-head second into a first win remains to be seen. The answer, at least, should come soon. He raced just yesterday.