Ricardo Phillips

What's interesting about how Ricardo Phillips runs best is the distance. Over a mile and three to four furlongs — a trip that suits horses with a bit of stamina rather than raw speed — he has won 1 from 6 races at those distances, a win rate of roughly 1 in 6. That's comfortably better than his overall record and suggests the longer trips genuinely unlock something in him. Most of his racing has come at Class 6 level, which is the entry-level tier of British racing, and he has won 1 from 9 races there. Not flashy, but consistent enough to be competitive.

His most frequent jockey, Trevor Whelan, has ridden him eight times without getting a win together — though it's worth noting the pair weren't aboard for that Leicester breakthrough either. Henry Candy, who trains him out of Kingston Warren in Oxfordshire, has sent out nine winners this season, so the yard is in decent form. The key detail now is that Ricardo Phillips hasn't raced in 146 days — roughly four months — so he returns fresh, possibly with some work done over the break. Horses returning from a layoff can go either way: sharper for the rest, or needing a run to blow away the cobwebs. His recent form before the break read 3-9-1-2-5-3, with that "1" being the Leicester win sitting right in the middle of a sequence that is otherwise a mixture of near-misses and modest efforts. It paints a picture of a horse that competes honestly without quite being able to string results together.