Kasper Hauser

Jockey Phillip Enright has been the regular partner, taking the ride in six of those races together, but that combination has yet to click — zero wins from six attempts is a partnership that has found plenty of ways to be almost good enough without quite getting there. That said, racing is rarely a straight line, and the fact that Enright keeps coming back suggests there is belief somewhere that the penny might eventually drop.

The yard behind the horse is trained by Kevin Thomas Coleman, based at Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary, and the operation is clearly capable — ten winners sent out already this season is a solid return and shows Coleman knows how to get a horse ready to win. The question is when, or whether, Kasper Hauser becomes one of those winners rather than the horse that keeps the others honest. Raced just one day ago, this is a horse very much still in the thick of things, and Coleman's team are clearly not giving up on finding the right opportunity.

Some horses take longer than others to figure it out, and at four years old there is still time. But fifteen races without a win is a real test of patience for everyone involved, and at some point the evidence has to be weighed honestly. Two places from fifteen races means this horse finishes in the top three roughly once every seven or eight outings — not nothing, but not the profile of a horse about to go on a winning streak either. Kasper Hauser is the kind of horse that keeps you watching, keeps you hoping, and keeps not quite delivering — which, in its own maddening way, is what racing is all about.