Opening Bat

The most telling number, though, is the most recent one: he has not raced in 192 days, or close to six months. That is a significant absence for a young horse, and how he returns from this break will say a lot about where his season is heading. Trained by Harry Charlton at the Beckhampton yard in Wiltshire — an operation that has sent out 38 winners this season alone, so clearly a place that knows what it is doing — Opening Bat will be expected to come back in reasonable shape. The question is whether he returns as the horse who crossed the line first at Kempton, or whether it takes a run or two to rediscover that form.

His recent sequence of 8-3-3-3-1-4 (reading from latest to oldest) tells a story worth examining. The single win sits in the middle of a run of three consecutive third-place finishes, which speaks to a horse who competes honestly and regularly gets involved in the finish without quite sealing the deal. His best performances have come at distances between a mile and one furlong and a mile and two furlongs — he has won once in six attempts at those trips, which is not a headline figure, but it confirms where the yard believe he travels most comfortably.

One puzzle is his record with jockey Trevor Whelan, who has ridden him five times without a win between them. That is not unusual — partnerships can take time to click, or a horse may simply not have shown his best on those particular days — but it is worth noting as he returns to action. At Class 5, the most common level he has competed at, he is yet to win in four attempts. That is a slight curiosity for a horse who has managed to win elsewhere, and it suggests his best may come when he steps up rather than down in class.