Tickettothestars

The road to that win was not straightforward. Trainer Rod Millman, who operates out of Kentisbeare in Devon and has sent out an impressive 42 winners already this season, has been patient with this horse. At one point, a trip to Yarmouth looked promising — Millman liked what he saw at home and fancied her chances — but the race turned into a frustrating afternoon when she got caught up in traffic, running into horses that came back towards her at just the wrong moment. Racing can be brutal that way: you can do everything right and still come home empty-handed because of a second's bad luck in a field of runners.

The record across Class 5 races — the bread-and-butter level of British racing, where horses of this rating tend to spend most of their time — makes for sober reading: no wins from four attempts at that level. That said, her overall win rate of 8%, or roughly 1 win from every 13 races, needs to be read alongside her recent run of form. Four of her last five completed races have produced a top-five finish, including that runner-up placing, which suggests a horse that is competing consistently without quite finding the winning thread.

What gives the team some optimism is her current rating of 65. In racing terms, a rating is the handicapper's way of levelling the playing field — and at 65, Millman believes there are races out there where she can be competitive. She was originally bought out of a breeze-up sale for Middleham Park Racing, one of the country's best-known syndicate operations, which tells you she arrived with some expectation attached. Whether she can build on that April win and prove the faith was warranted is the question that keeps things interesting. She raced just yesterday, so the story is very much still being written.