No More Porter

What keeps the story from being entirely bleak is the sheer consistency of the near-misses. Fifteen places from those 50 races tells you this is not a horse that trails in last — it has been competitive enough to finish in the frame regularly, just rarely in the right frame. Its recent run of form reads 13-3-6-4-4-4, which shows a troubled run last time out but several solid placed efforts before that. At its best distance, somewhere between seven furlongs and a mile, it has managed that one win from eleven races — the numbers are modest, but that is at least where it looks most at home.

Jockey Adam Caffrey has partnered No More Porter fourteen times without ever riding it to a winner, a run of results that says something about how difficult this horse has been to get over the line. The yard behind it, Adrian McGuinness's operation in Lusk, County Dublin, is clearly a functioning outfit — 45 winners on the board this season alone — so the horse is not short of professional support. It raced just yesterday, meaning it is still very much active, still being aimed at races, still in the mix.

At eight years old, with one win on its record and nothing added in the past twenty months, No More Porter is what the sport quietly produces plenty of: a horse that has given a great deal of effort for very little reward. But someone keeps entering it, someone keeps saddling it up, and yesterday it was out there again. That, in its own way, is worth noting.