Tea It Is

The recent form tells a familiar story. A third-place finish a few runs back offered a glimmer, but since then the numbers have drifted — seventh, fourth, tenth — before two blank runs to finish the sequence. Jockey Daniel King has been alongside for six of those attempts and is yet to find a way to unlock a win, though the pairing clearly has history and the yard has not given up on the combination.

That yard is worth noting. Trainer Denis Gerard Hogan, based in Cloughjordan in County Tipperary, has sent out 56 winners this season — that is a yard in form, which makes Tea It Is something of an outlier in the stable. Hogan clearly knows how to get horses winning, which suggests the puzzle here lies with the horse itself rather than the team around it. Finding the right race, the right conditions, the right day — that search has been going on for 21 races now.

At nine years old, the window for a first win is narrowing. Most horses of this age have long since established what they are. Tea It Is has established itself as a horse that competes, that places, that never quite embarrasses itself — but also one that has never raised its head in front. Whether that changes is the only real question left. The horse raced just yesterday, so the team has not lost faith yet, and in racing, that counts for something.