Saint Polo

The recent form makes for interesting reading. Across the last six races, Saint Polo has posted back-to-back second-place finishes, sandwiched between a third, and raced just yesterday — so this is a horse in the thick of a busy campaign. That ninth-place finish earlier in the sequence is the one blot, but the general picture is of a horse that keeps finding one or two rivals too good rather than falling away tamely. In short, it keeps showing up and competing; it just hasn't been able to get its nose in front.

Trainer Jennie Candlish, based in Basford, Staffordshire, has had a productive season by any measure — 61 winners sent out already, which tells you this is a yard that knows how to prepare horses to win. Saint Polo has been the exception rather than the rule in that stable. Jockey Ian Power has been the regular partner, riding the horse in seven of its nine races without getting a win, though that is not unusual when a horse is consistently finishing second and third rather than landing the race.

Racing mainly at Class 4 level — the bread-and-butter tier of British racing, below the glamour events but still genuinely competitive — Saint Polo has run four times at that grade and not won any of them. The good news is that it clearly handles the company. The frustrating news is that it hasn't yet found a way past the one in front. For a horse placing as regularly as this one, the first win feels less like a question of whether and more a question of when.