I Am Me

Sixteen months have passed since that victory, and things haven't gone to plan. The horse has picked up six places from its remaining 16 races, winning at a rate of roughly 1 in every 17 starts. Its last six outings have been particularly tough — two ninths, two thirds, a fifth, and a void race. Most recently, at Pontefract just a day ago, I Am Me was tried in first-time blinkers and ran too free to be effective. In Class 4 company — the middle rung of the racing ladder — the horse has failed to win a single race from six attempts.

Trainer Mike Murphy, whose Westoning yard in Bedfordshire has sent out 15 winners this season, suggested after Pontefract that things simply haven't clicked the way he'd hoped. The plan at Musselburgh in the spring didn't work out as intended either. There's a sense that I Am Me remains a capable horse — it wouldn't rack up six places from 17 races otherwise — but has never quite recaptured that early spark. With that maiden victory now looking like a false dawn, the challenge for Murphy will be finding the right race and conditions to turn I Am Me back into a winner.