Running The Game

What complicates the picture is the layoff. Running The Game has not raced for 406 days — over thirteen months — which is a significant absence by any measure. That kind of break can mean anything from a minor setback to a more serious issue, and it is impossible to know from the outside. What it does mean is that whoever watches this horse next time out is essentially watching a comeback run. First race back after a long absence is always a step into the unknown.

The recent form before that absence tells its own story. Reading back through the last six runs, the sequence goes 1-4-7-11-6-8 — that single win followed by a string of disappointing finishes. The horse has not troubled the judge since that Kempton win 27 months ago, and its usual level of competition is Class 4, the fourth tier of racing in Britain, where it has yet to win in six attempts. That last fact is worth sitting with: the one win this horse has came in a different type of race, and at the level it has competed at most regularly, it has drawn a blank every single time.

The yard behind it, however, is no small operation. Gary and Josh Moore, based in Lower Beeding in West Sussex, have sent out 94 winners this season alone — a high-volume, professional team that knows how to place a horse and when to bring one back. If they have kept Running The Game off the track this long, there will be a reason, and when they do decide the time is right, it will be worth paying attention. The talent is somewhere in there — one win from five at the right distance tells you that. The question is whether thirteen months away from the track has sharpened it or blunted it.