Sir Yoshi

What makes Sir Yoshi genuinely tricky to assess is the gap between winning and placing. Seven places from 16 races tells you this is not a horse that simply trails in at the back of the field — it gets involved, it finishes in the mix, but the final step to the front keeps proving elusive. The recent form figures of 2-2-4-4 before the last couple of runs showed a horse that was knocking hard on the door, yet the most recent outings — finishing 15th and 18th — suggest something has gone flat. Raced just yesterday, the form is about as live as it gets, which at least shows the team still believes there is a race to be won somewhere.

Jockey Luke McAteer has been the regular partner, riding Sir Yoshi in 13 of those 16 races and winning on just the one occasion together — that same Tipperary day. At roughly 1 win from every 13 rides as a partnership, the numbers are honest rather than inspiring. Geoffrey Harker's yard has sent out four winners this season, so the operation is capable of finding the right spot for a horse. The question now is whether Sir Yoshi can rediscover whatever it showed on that May afternoon in Ireland. Three runs at the top level of racing in Britain have produced nothing, which is no disgrace — those are the hardest races to win — but it does suggest the key to unlocking this horse may lie somewhere slightly further down the ladder, where a confidence-boosting victory might remind everyone, Sir Yoshi included, what winning feels like.