Star Vantage

The recent form makes for curious reading. In its last six races, Star Vantage has finished fifth, fourth, fourth, fourth, and fourth — a pattern of near-misses that is almost unnervingly consistent. The horse is not being embarrassed. It is simply losing, repeatedly, to horses that are just a little bit better on the day. There is a difference between a horse that cannot compete and a horse that competes without winning, and Star Vantage firmly belongs in the second category.

Jockey Jonathon Bewley has sat aboard this horse nine times and has yet to taste victory, which tells its own story. The partnership has had every opportunity to find a winning formula and has not managed it, though that is arguably less a reflection on Bewley than on the fundamental challenge Star Vantage presents to anyone trying to ride it to a first win. The horse has run twenty-four times at Class 5 — the entry-level tier of British racing — and has a win rate of exactly zero from those twenty-four attempts. That is the level where this horse is expected to be most competitive, and it has still come up short every single time.

Trainer Rebecca Menzies, based at Morden in County Durham, is clearly no stranger to winners — her yard has sent out 36 this season alone, which is a healthy return — so the issue is not a lack of training expertise. Star Vantage raced just yesterday, which means it is very much an active runner, still being campaigned and presumably still being given opportunities to break its duck. Whether that first win ever comes is genuinely unknown, but at nine years old, with time not on its side, each race that passes without a victory makes the next one feel that little bit more significant.