Jerpoint Abbey

The recent form tells an interesting story. A fourth-place finish sits in the record, which shows Jerpoint Abbey has at least threatened to get competitive, but that run is bookended by an eighth and a seventeenth — the latter a result that suggests at least one day where things went badly wrong. Racing in a large field and finishing near the tail end is the kind of experience that either toughens a horse up or confirms it needs a different approach entirely. With a race as recently as yesterday, the team clearly haven't given up on finding the right opportunity.

What does offer genuine encouragement is who is doing the training. Emmet Mullins, based in Bagenalstown in County Carlow, has sent out 31 winners already this season — that's a yard in serious form, operating at a high level. When a trainer is firing in winners at that rate, they tend to know which horses are ready to run and which aren't. The fact that Mullins keeps running Jerpoint Abbey suggests there's something he sees at home on the gallops that the racecourse hasn't yet rewarded. Sometimes a horse just needs the penny to drop.