Fidendum

What makes the recent run of form genuinely encouraging is the consistency. Reading the last six results in reverse — eighth, fifth, fourth, third, second, first — that is not a random scatter of results. That is a horse progressively improving, race by race, until the pieces finally clicked. Trainers David Killahena and Graeme McPherson, who operate out of Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, have clearly had this horse on an upward curve, and the patience has paid off. Their yard has already sent out 18 winners this season, so they know what a horse in form looks like — and Fidendum fits the picture.

The one slight puzzle is that Fidendum has run three times at the Class 4 level — one rung below the very top tier — without winning any of those. The Market Rasen victory came at the same level, so it is worth watching whether the yard now tests it somewhere stiffer, or keeps it in familiar waters where confidence is clearly flowing. Either way, with a race under its belt just yesterday and that improving arc behind it, Fidendum arrives at whatever comes next in the best shape of its career.