Star Of Emerald

What gives the optimists something to hold onto is who is doing the training. Edward Bethell operates out of Middleham in North Yorkshire, one of racing's great working towns, and his yard has sent out 62 winners already this season — a serious number that marks him out as one of the more productive trainers in the country right now. When a yard is firing at that rate, the horses in it are usually well-placed and fit, which means Star Of Emerald's struggles aren't obviously a management issue. The talent simply hasn't shown itself yet.

Racing a three-year-old is always a work in progress. Some horses take time to mature, to learn how to race, or to find the right conditions. With a race as recent as yesterday, the team clearly hasn't given up on finding the right opportunity. Whether Star Of Emerald eventually justifies that patience is the open question — but with a trainer in this kind of form, it's at least in the right hands to find out.