The Third Star

The recent run of form tells a trickier story. The last six races have produced finishes of eighth, sixth, sixth, ninth, seventh, and fifth — a sequence that shows the horse competing without threatening the front. That Southwell win is now 13 months in the rearview mirror, and nothing since has come close to repeating it.

What makes this interesting is where The Third Star has been asked to run. Three of its nine races have come at Class 1 level — the very top tier of British racing — and the horse has not won any of them. That is an ambitious target for a horse with a single career win to its name, a bit like asking a promising club footballer to compete in a Champions League final. The fact the team at Lambourn keeps entering The Third Star at that level suggests they believe there is more ability here than the results currently show.

Owen Burrows, who trains The Third Star from his Lambourn yard in Berkshire, has had a productive season — 30 winners sent out, which is the kind of output that marks a yard in decent form. A trainer running at that clip tends to know which horses are ready to perform and which need time. The Third Star raced just yesterday, so whatever Burrows is looking for, he is clearly still searching for it actively.