Indefensible

The recent form figures tell an interesting story. Read right to left — 5, 3, 6, 2, 7 — and you can see a horse that ran into a place second time out and then again most recently, sandwiched around a couple of quieter efforts. That second place last time out, reported just yesterday, means this is a horse very much in active campaign and presumably being aimed at a target in the near future.

Indefensible typically runs at Class 5, the entry level of British racing, which is where most horses begin to find their feet. Three races at that level without a win is not a crisis — plenty of horses take time to break through — but it does mean there is still something to prove. Trainer Ollie Pears, based at Norton in North Yorkshire, has sent out 11 winners already this season, so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse to the winner's enclosure. Whether Indefensible is next in line remains to be seen, but a yard with that kind of momentum is not short of confidence heading into any race.

At this stage of its career, the most honest thing you can say about Indefensible is that the pieces are not quite in place yet. A win rate of zero from five is not unusual for a three-year-old still learning the game, and the placed runs suggest the talent is there somewhere. The next few races will start to tell us whether this is a horse on the way up or one still trying to find its level.