Silent Dawn

The recent form makes for interesting reading. A second-place finish sits in there, which tells you the ability is present — this is not a horse that trails in last and goes home quietly. But either side of that promising run, finishes of sixth, eighth, and eleventh suggest inconsistency is the real issue. Something clicks on certain days and disappears on others. The most recent entry in the form, a blank dash, indicates a non-completion at some point, which adds another layer of frustration to the story.

Eoin G Kelly has been the regular jockey, partnering Silent Dawn five times without managing to get the horse to the winner's enclosure. That's not necessarily a criticism of either horse or rider — sometimes a pairing just hasn't found the right race at the right moment — but five attempts together with nothing to show for it does suggest a change of approach might be worth considering.

The trainer is Adrian Murray, operating out of Rathowen in County Westmeath. Twenty-six winners sent out this season shows this is a yard that knows how to get horses winning — which makes Silent Dawn something of an outlier in the stable. Murray clearly has the tools and the know-how; the puzzle is finding the combination of race and conditions that finally unlocks this particular horse. Silent Dawn raced just one day ago, so the team is clearly keeping it busy and is not giving up on finding that elusive breakthrough.

At seven, time is not exactly on Silent Dawn's side, but horses have surprised people before. The second place on the recent record is a reminder that there is a performance in here somewhere. The question is whether everything can come together on the right afternoon.