Earlofbrackenstown

Bedi trains out of Kirklevington in North Yorkshire and has sent out two winners this season, so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse ready to perform. Earlofbrackenstown, though, has not been among those success stories. Its recent form figures make for tough reading — a fifth place and a tenth being the only times it has even shown up on the scoreboard across its last six races, with the dash symbol indicating it finished outside the places entirely on the other four occasions.

What is perhaps most telling is that this horse has been running at Class 5 level — the bottom tier of British racing, where the least competitive horses tend to operate — and has still not managed a win from four attempts there. That is not a horse that is being asked too much; that is a horse that is genuinely struggling to find its feet at any level. Raced just one day ago, Earlofbrackenstown is clearly still being given chances, and at seven years old there is still time for the picture to change. But on the evidence available, anyone watching for the first time would need to be patient.