O'Grady's Hill

The recent form makes for familiar reading. In its last six races, the best O'Grady's Hill has managed is a couple of third-place finishes, with a handful of fourth and fifth spots scattered in between. It raced just yesterday, so it is clearly a horse being kept busy, and trainer Sarah-Jayne Davies at her Leominster yard in Herefordshire is evidently not giving up. That counts for something — the yard has sent out five winners already this season, so they know what a winning horse looks like, and they keep running this one.

James Best has been in the saddle for six of those races and the pair are still waiting for their moment together, going 0 from 6 as a combination. That is not necessarily a reflection on either horse or jockey individually, but it does suggest the partnership has not yet found whatever ingredient is missing. O'Grady's Hill has done most of its racing at Class 5, which is the entry-level tier of British racing — the place where horses go to find races they can genuinely compete in. Winning 0 from 5 at that level is the detail that stands out most. These are supposed to be the winnable races, and so far, they have not been.

None of this means O'Grady's Hill is without merit — placed five times in twelve races tells you it is competitive and consistent enough to feature, just not quite to get its nose in front. But for a seven-year-old still hunting a maiden win at the easiest level, the honest summary is that time and opportunity are both narrowing. The team at Leominster clearly believe there is a win in there somewhere. Whether they are right remains the question.