Lieutenant Lily

The level Lieutenant Lily competes at is also worth noting. Class 5 sits near the bottom of the British racing pyramid — these are races designed to give horses like this a chance to win. Yet in four attempts at that level, the record reads zero wins from four races. When a horse cannot find a way to win in the easier grades, it raises genuine questions about whether a breakthrough is coming.

That said, the yard behind Lieutenant Lily is far from a lost cause. Ben Haslam trains out of Middleham Moor in North Yorkshire — one of the great racing villages in Britain, home to strings of horses working the famous gallops every morning. His operation has sent out 32 winners already this season, which tells you there is plenty of ability in that yard. The horses win; Lieutenant Lily just hasn't been one of them yet.

Whether that changes anytime soon is the real question. The recent sequence of finishes — deep in the field, race after race — points to a horse that may need things to fall perfectly in its favour, or perhaps a change of tactics, to finally get its head in front. For now, Lieutenant Lily remains one of racing's nearly-horses: active, trying, and still searching.