Sparkling Pink

What makes the recent form a little concerning is the direction of travel. Her last five runs read 3, 10, 8, 8, 6 — those middle positions mean she hasn't been threatening the front of the field, and the sequence suggests she's found things harder since that Pontefract breakthrough ten months ago. She raced just yesterday, which tells you she's a busy, active horse, but the results haven't been kind.

Over sprint distances of 5 to 6½ furlongs, she's won 1 of her 6 races in that range — about 1 in 6 — which is at least a more promising picture than her overall numbers. Those sharp, shorter trips suit horses with a bit of early pace, and that's clearly where her trainer Adrian Nicholls is pointing her. Nicholls, based at Sessay in North Yorkshire, has had 12 winners already this season, so there's clearly a yard in decent form behind her. The puzzle is finding the right opportunity to get Sparkling Pink back in front again.

She's been competing at Class 5, which is towards the lower end of the British racing ladder — these are races designed to give horses like her a chance to win. That she hasn't managed to win a single one of her 6 races at that level yet is the honest reality. But she's still only three, still in the early chapters of her career, and Pontefract showed she can do it. The question for the yard is whether they can find the right conditions to coax that performance out of her again.