Enya

The most recent of those efforts came just yesterday, which puts Enya firmly in the thick of an active campaign. Finishing second on the latest start continues a pattern that will be familiar to anyone following this horse — close, consistent, but still searching for that breakthrough.

Enya is trained by Jamie Snowden, whose yard in Lambourn, Berkshire is one of the busiest operations around at the moment. Lambourn is one of British racing's great training centres, a village where horses and horsepeople are the entire point of the place, and Snowden fits right in — his team has sent out 82 winners already this season, which is a serious number by any measure. When a yard is firing at that level, it suggests the horses coming through the door are being well prepared, which gives some cause for optimism that Enya will eventually convert one of these placed efforts into a win.

The question, for now, is whether that moment arrives before the horse's patience — and its the yard' — runs out. Five races without winning is not a crisis for a four-year-old, and the consistency is genuinely something. But there will come a point where placed efforts need to become winning ones. With a trainer in such fine form and a horse that clearly knows how to race, the ingredients are there.