Lady Kara

That recent run of form is both encouraging and quietly frustrating. The sequence of 3-2-4-4-2-2 over her last six races shows a horse who often finds one too good on the day but rarely falls out of contention. Four times she has been beaten into second place. That is not the record of a horse who doesn't belong at this level — it is the record of a horse looking for the right moment to put it all together.

She races predominantly at Class 4 level, which sits in the middle tier of British racing — not the showpiece events at the top, but a competitive and meaningful grade where races are genuinely hard to win. She has run five times at that level without a victory, so the yard will be well aware that the breakthrough has not come easily. Jockey Luke Scott has been in the saddle for six of her eight races and is still waiting for that first win alongside her, though the pair have built up a real partnership through those outings.

Behind the scenes, the yard responsible for Lady Kara is in strong form. Trained by Dr Richard Newland and Jamie Insole out of Elmbridge in Worcestershire, she is part of a team that has sent out 49 winners already this season — a setup that clearly knows how to get horses ready to perform. With Lady Kara having raced just one day ago, she is very much in the thick of a busy campaign, and a trainer with that kind of firepower behind them is unlikely to keep running a horse this often without believing the win is coming. The question is simply when.