Starting Monday

What makes that Gowran Park win all the more striking is the context. Thirty-one races without a win is a long wait for any horse, let alone one now in its ninth year. Most horses at this stage of their career have either found their level or been retired. Starting Monday kept turning up, kept placing, and eventually got the job done. Whether that says something about the horse's attitude or simply the patience of trainer Gillian Scott's yard in Ballingarry, Limerick, is hard to say — but it is a better story than most expected.

The regular partnership with jockey W J Lee tells its own tale. Fifteen races together and not a single win between them — a record that looks bleak on paper, though it is worth noting the horse itself rarely wins regardless of who is in the saddle. Scott's yard has sent out two winners this season, so Starting Monday accounts for one of them — no small contribution from a horse that went 31 races before getting off the mark. The recent form reading of a win followed by finishes of 18th and 4th and 13th and 8th shows a horse that has not been able to back it up since, but it raced just yesterday and remains active, which means the Gowran Park win has not marked the end of the road just yet.