Midnight Lir

Those two wins came in the space of six weeks in late summer 2023 — first at Beverley in August, then at Hamilton Park in September — and nothing since. That's 32 months and counting without a victory, which is a long drought by any measure. The recent form makes sobering reading: in the last six races, Midnight Lir has finished 9th, 12th, 6th, 2nd, 8th, and 9th. That second place is a flicker of something, but it's surrounded by races where the horse was well beaten and never really in the picture.

Connor Beasley has been in the saddle for almost half of Midnight Lir's career — 13 of those 28 races — and together they've managed 1 win from those outings, or roughly 1 in every 13 rides. That's not a partnership that sets pulses racing, but it's a consistent one. The horse almost always lines up in Class 5 company, which is the bread-and-butter level of British racing — competitive, unpretentious, and hard to win even at that tier. Of 14 races at that level, Midnight Lir has won just once.

What keeps things interesting is the yard behind the horse. Michael Dods, training out of Piercebridge in County Durham, has sent out 43 winners already this season — that's a yard in good form, with horses running well. Midnight Lir raced just yesterday, so this is a horse that is very much still in training and still being aimed at races. The team clearly believes there's another win in there somewhere. Whether that faith is rewarded remains to be seen, but with a trainer who knows how to get horses to the winner's post, you wouldn't write Midnight Lir off entirely.