Reteti

The recent form makes for interesting reading. Looking at the last six races in reverse order, Reteti has finished 6th, 4th, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 2nd — so two runner-up finishes sit in there, and the horse was last out just yesterday. That is not the form of a horse that has fallen apart or lost interest. It is running consistently at a decent level, just finding one or two too good on the day.

Most of those runs have come at Class 4, which represents the middle tier of British racing — not the glamour events, but not the lowest level either. Reteti has run six times at that grade without winning, which does raise the question of whether the yard need to try dropping into softer company to finally get the job done. Marc Goldstein has been the regular partner, riding seven of those 14 races without a win between them, though the partnership clearly keeps getting another chance, which suggests the team see something worth persisting with.

Sheena West trains the horse from her yard in Lewes, West Sussex, and she has had eight winners on the board this season — so it is not a stable short on confidence or ability. When a yard is sending out winners elsewhere, a horse still searching for its first can feel a little unlucky by comparison. Reteti is not disgracing itself, though. Four places from 14 races means it has been competitive roughly once every three or four runs, and those two second-place finishes show it can get to the front of the race — just not quite past the horse in front. The win is there somewhere. It just has not arrived yet.