Echinacea

The recent form is actually encouraging. In the last six races, Echinacea has finished second twice and sixth once, with a ninth and another second filling out the picture. Two runner-up finishes in that recent spell suggest the horse is racing well and finding a level where it belongs — it just needs things to fall right, or perhaps a slightly weaker field, to finally break that duck. Raced just one day ago, this is a horse very much in the middle of its season right now.

Robbie Colgan has been the regular rider, teaming up with Echinacea five times without a win between them. That partnership has had plenty of opportunities to get off the mark and hasn't managed it yet, though the placing record shows they haven't been far away. Trainer Noel C Kelly, based at Draperstown in County Derry, has sent out 14 winners this season, so the yard clearly knows how to win races. The question is simply when Echinacea's turn will come.

This is the kind of horse that keeps the yard — sorry, keeps the trainer and team — believing, because it never embarrasses itself. It places, it competes, and it races frequently. Sooner or later, a horse like this finds the right race at the right moment. Whether Echinacea can deliver that first win before the season is out is the story worth following.