Polling Day

What makes the story interesting is the distance. Polling Day finds its best form over longer trips, between a mile and six furlongs and two miles, winning 1 of its 5 races at those distances — a 20% win rate, or 1 in every 5. That's a completely different picture to the wider career record, and it tells you something important: this is a horse that needs time and space to get into a rhythm. When the conditions suit, it can get competitive.

The recent form gives a little cause for optimism too. A run that reads 3-7-7-–-6-1 (most recent first) shows that Chester win sandwiched by some modest efforts, but the horse is clearly still active and still being campaigned. Bernard Llewellyn, the trainer based at Fochriw in Mid Glamorgan, has sent out 10 winners this season, so this is a yard in decent form. Polling Day hasn't always had the most fruitful partnership in the saddle — regular jockey Nick Scholfield has yet to land a win in their 5 races together — but the track record at Chester suggests the right conditions can unlock something.

The one obvious puzzle is that Polling Day has raced nine times at Class 4 level, which is mid-tier competition in Britain, without winning once. That zero from nine tells you this horse has generally been found out against stronger fields. The Chester win came at that same level, so perhaps the combination of the right track and the right trip is what was always needed. At eight years old, there may not be a huge number of chapters left in this story — but at least one of them ended with a win.