Spiritoftheblues

The frustration, though, is that Spiritoftheblues has now gone a year without another success. A single win in seven starts—roughly one winner every seven races—is not the profile of a high-class performer, and the recent sequence of four, second, third, and second finishes shows a horse that gets close but struggles to seal the deal. That said, the consistency is there. Trainer David O'Meara, who runs a powerful yard at Upper Helmsley in Yorkshire and has saddled 101 winners this season alone, knows how to place a horse to win, so these near-misses may be more about the level of competition or slight bad luck than any serious shortcoming. The horse is still actively racing, having run just yesterday, which keeps the door open for another breakthrough sooner rather than later.