March To The Band

The recent form figures make for sobering reading: finishing 5th, 9th, 7th, 8th, 11th, and 13th across the last six races, with the most recent run coming just yesterday. If there is a trajectory there, it is heading in the wrong direction — the finishes have generally gotten worse, not better. At the level where March To The Band typically competes, which is towards the lower end of the racing ladder, these are races it ought to be competitive in. Going 0 from 3 at that level suggests the struggle is genuine rather than a case of simply being placed against stronger horses.

The trainer, John S O'Donoghue, operates out of Curragh in Co Kildare — the heartland of Irish racing — and has sent out 7 winners already this season, so the yard clearly knows how to get a horse to the line first. The question is whether March To The Band can find a way to do the same. Every horse has to win somewhere, sometime, and plenty of horses have taken ten or more races to break their duck. But the clock is ticking, and yesterday's run means the team will be looking hard at where to find conditions that might finally unlock something in this horse.