Katana

Her recent form makes for mixed reading. A third place in her last six outings is the bright spot, but either side of it she has finished fifth and sixth twice each, suggesting she finds it hard to sustain a consistent level. She has not raced for around four months now, which is a significant break, and how she returns from that layoff will tell the yard — sorry, will tell her trainer Robert Stephens and his team — a great deal about where she is physically and mentally.

Stephens trains out of Caldicot in Monmouthshire and has had a reasonable season, sending out 11 winners, so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse ready to perform. The question is whether Katana can be the one to finally reward them. Jockey Ben Jones has had five rides on her without a win, which is a run of results that would test anyone's patience, though the fact that he keeps coming back suggests there is belief that the right day will come.

The trickiest part of Katana's profile is where she races. Class 4 is the bread-and-butter level of British racing — not the glamour events, but not the bottom rung either — and across eight races at that level she has not won once. That is a meaningful sample size. Winning zero from eight at your most common level of competition suggests she may be operating just a fraction above what she can comfortably handle, or that something specific — ground conditions, track layout, race distance — has not yet clicked. Four months off and a fresh start could change the picture. But right now, Katana is a horse that keeps asking the same question and keeps getting the same answer.