Dora Vita

The recent form does tell a slightly more complicated story than a simple string of losses. Those two fourth-place finishes are sandwiched around some tougher days — an eleventh and a sixth among them — so consistency has been hard to come by. She raced just yesterday, which means she is very much in the thick of her campaign right now, and her trainer will be working through what conditions and company suit her best.

That trainer is Richard Phillips, based at Adlestrop in Gloucestershire, a small yard that has sent out three winners already this season. Phillips operates at a modest scale, which makes those wins meaningful — this is not a factory yard where winners are expected to roll in weekly. For Dora Vita, finding the right race at the right moment will be key, and it is still early enough in her career that improvement is entirely plausible. She has not shown it yet, but six races at three years old is not a long story — it is barely the opening chapter.