Reagrove Lord

The recent form is a mixed picture. A second and a third in runs five and six ago suggested something might finally be clicking, but the last four outings have produced finishes of eighth, ninth, ninth, and fourth — form that reads more like frustration than progress. Reagrove Lord raced just yesterday, so whatever happened is fresh in the memory of the team at George Bewley's yard in Colby, Cumbria.

Bewley has sent out seven winners this season, so the stable clearly knows how to get a horse to the front. Most of Reagrove Lord's 17 races — 13 of them, to be exact — have come at Class 5, the entry-level tier of British racing, and the horse has not won a single one. That is not a small sample size. Thirteen chances at the easiest level available and nothing to show for it is a stubborn kind of winless streak.

Jockey Edward Austin has been loyally alongside for 16 of those 17 races, and the pair have yet to experience that moment together. That kind of long-running partnership without a winner is unusual — most yards would have tried a different rider long before now — and it speaks either to a genuine belief that the win is coming, or simply that Austin knows this horse better than anyone else does. At eight years old, time is not unlimited, but Reagrove Lord keeps getting entries and keeps lining up, which means someone in the yard still believes there is a race to be won somewhere.