Montecam

That Hereford win came almost exactly two years ago, which is a long time without a victory. Since then, Montecam has gone six races without winning, and its most recent form reads 14-2-5-3-4-7 — meaning a string of near-misses and worse mixed in together. The 2nd place in that sequence is encouraging, a reminder that the horse can get competitive, but the 14th place finish is harder to ignore. Still, five places from 13 races tells you this is a horse that fairly regularly runs into the money without quite getting over the line.

Montecam is now returning after a five-month absence, which adds a question mark over its fitness coming back into competition. Breaks of that length can sometimes freshen a horse up; they can also mean it needs a race or two to find its best form. How it runs first time back will tell us a lot.

Most of Montecam's races have come at Class 4 level — the middle tier of British racing, solid without being elite. At that level specifically, it has won 1 from 5, which works out at 20%, or roughly 1 in every 5 races. That's actually a decent ratio, and suggests Montecam is better suited to that grade than its overall record might imply. Regular partner Nico de Boinville has been in the saddle for 7 of its 13 races and has that one win to show for it — 14%, or roughly 1 in 7 — a modest return but a partnership that has clearly been worth persisting with.

Montecam is trained by John C McConnell, operating out of Stamullen in County Meath. McConnell's yard has sent out 44 winners this season, which marks it as a productive operation. Having a horse trained by a yard that is firing at this rate is a useful thing — there is genuine momentum behind it, even if Montecam itself has been waiting a while to remind everyone what it can do.