Lover Girl

Her form over her last five outings tells a story of a young horse still learning her trade but clearly capable. She won most recently at Salisbury on 3 May, and before that at Wolverhampton back in April — her debut victory came at that same Wolverhampton track. Between those wins, she has picked up three placings, suggesting she is competitive enough to run well consistently even when she does not quite get the job done. The fact that she has won two of her last five races shows she is not a flash in the pan; this is a horse who can repeat the trick.

K P De Foy trains her from Newmarket, a yard that has had 40 winners this season. Lover Girl fits the profile of a horse being carefully campaigned through the early part of her racing life — young, capable, and given chances to race regularly rather than being wrapped in cotton wool. The gap since her last win suggests she may have been rested or stepped up in grade, as trainers sometimes do with promising juveniles. Whatever has happened in the three months since Salisbury, she raced yesterday, which means she has returned to the track and is still very much in the mix.