El Ghaawy

The recent form makes for grim reading. Over the last six races, the best finish has been fourth, bookended by a string of seventh, sixth, twelfth, eighth, and seventh place efforts. That twelfth place in particular suggests a day when things went badly wrong. These are not near-misses. There is no obvious upward curve, no sense that a breakthrough is just around the corner. Eight races is a reasonable sample — enough to start drawing conclusions — and so far the conclusion is that El Ghaawy has found racing very difficult indeed.

Loughnane's yard is no backwater operation. They have sent out 25 winners already this season, which tells you the stable knows how to get a horse to perform. That makes El Ghaawy's struggles slightly puzzling. The horse is racing at Class 6 — the lowest rung of British racing, where the competition is about as accessible as it gets — and has still failed to win or place in any of its three races at that level. When a horse cannot get into the first three at the easiest tier of the sport, it raises genuine questions about what the right path forward looks like.

The one thing working in El Ghaawy's favour is time. At four years old, there is still room to develop, and the yard's wider record proves they are capable of finding winners. But on current evidence, this is a horse that has yet to show anything close to its best — assuming that best is still to come.