Saccary

Those three silvers have come after a mid-season wobble that saw Saccary finish fourth, sixth, and seventh in three successive races, so the upturn in form is real and recent. The horse raced just yesterday, which tells you the team at David Pipe's yard in Nicholashayne, Somerset, are keeping it busy while it's in good nick. Pipe is one of the more respected names in the sport and his yard has sent out 35 winners already this season, so Saccary is in capable hands even if it hasn't yet contributed to that tally.

Regular jockey Jack Tudor has been aboard for five of those nine races and is yet to ride the horse to a win, going 0 from 5 together. That said, the partnership clearly hasn't been abandoned — Tudor keeps getting the call, which suggests the team believe the combination is working, even if the result hasn't quite arrived. Most of Saccary's races have come at Class 4 level, which sits in the middle of the competitive ladder — not the very top of the sport, but a step up from the entry-level contests. The horse is 0 from 3 at that level, though again, placing in that company is nothing to be embarrassed about.

The honest summary is this: Saccary is a horse that keeps running, keeps placing, and keeps falling just short. Three seconds from nine races — that's 0 wins but a place in a third of all outings — paints a picture of a genuinely competitive horse that has simply not yet had everything fall its way on the right day. In racing, the gap between second and first can be wafer-thin, and three consecutive runner-up finishes suggest that day might not be far off.