Satono Reve

That kind of consistency without a win is a curious thing. It suggests a horse that reliably runs near its best, travels well through a race, and finds the line — but has simply kept bumping into something slightly better on the day. The gap between a solid second and a winner isn't always enormous. Sometimes it's a length, sometimes a nose, sometimes just the wrong draw on the wrong afternoon.

Trainer Noriyuki Hori has had a quiet season so far — just one winner from the yard — so Satono Reve returning from its break represents a real opportunity to add to that tally. Whether the three months off has freshened the horse up or left it needing the run is the question every punter will be asking. Horses coming back after a layoff can go either way: sharper and hungry, or just a little ring-rusty. Given that this one's best form has always involved finishing close to the front, even a slightly flat return could still see it filling a place.

The one blank in the record — that dash at the head of the form figures — is the only race where Satono Reve didn't make the frame, and without more detail it's hard to read too much into it. What the rest of the form does say is that this horse is a reliable, place-finding type who hasn't yet found the extra gear needed to win. At six years