Sophia Rose

Since that win, though, Sophia Rose has gone six races without adding to her tally. A sequence of two second-place finishes mixed in with a handful of lesser results tells the story of a horse that is competitive enough to place but hasn't quite been able to get back to the top spot. She raced just yesterday, which shows the team are keeping her busy and believing there is another win in her somewhere.

The partnership with jockey Keith Donoghue hasn't clicked yet — they've ridden together five times without winning once. That's not necessarily a red flag; plenty of combinations take time, or simply need the right race to fall their way. But it's a combination still searching for its moment.

Sophia Rose is trained by Gavin Cromwell, whose yard in Navan, Co. Meath, has been in seriously good form — 97 winners this season is a substantial number and marks Cromwell out as one of the more productive trainers around right now. A horse doesn't need to be a star to benefit from being in a yard that is firing on all cylinders, and the fact that Cromwell is keeping Sophia Rose active suggests he hasn't given up on finding the right opportunity for her.

The Sligo win is now nine months ago, and the longer that gap stretches, the more the question becomes whether she can rediscover that level. She's placed six times in her career, which shows she belongs on a racecourse — she just needs everything to fall right on the day.