Man Of Desert

His recent form makes for difficult reading: in his last six races the best he has managed is a fourth, with a seventh, an eighth, a tenth, and another seventh filling out the rest of the picture. There is no upward curve here, and the tenth-place finish in particular suggests at least one day where things went badly wrong. He raced just yesterday, so the yard are clearly keeping him busy and looking for an opening.

Silvestre De Sousa, one of the more accomplished jockeys in British racing, has been his regular partner — six times in the saddle together without a win to show for it. That is not a reflection on De Sousa, who consistently rides at the highest level, but it does underline that the issue lies with the horse rather than the man on top. Trainer Chris Dwyer operates out of Newmarket, the heartland of British flat racing, and his yard has sent out eight winners this season, so the operation clearly knows how to get a horse to win. Man Of Desert simply has not found a way to join that list yet.

Competing at Class 4 — the middle tier of British racing, where the horses are solid but not stars — he has tried three times at that level without success. It is the kind of company where most horses eventually find their moment. Whether Man Of Desert finds his remains the open question.