Uncle Liam

What makes the recent form genuinely interesting is the direction of travel. Reading his last six races from most recent backwards — 8, 8, 2, 2, 2, 3 — you can see a horse that was struggling to land a blow, drifting to the back of the field, before something clicked. Three consecutive second-place finishes and a third suggest he found his level and started running to it. The two eighth-place efforts at the very start of that sequence are almost a different horse. Whatever changed, it seemed to matter.

He races mainly at Class 6, the entry-level tier of British racing, and has run five times at that level without winning. That might sound like a concern, but it is also where he belongs right now, and the placed efforts suggest he is not out of his depth — just waiting for the pieces to fall right. He was racing just yesterday, so he is clearly in a busy spell, which can sometimes be exactly when a horse hits form.

He is trained by Jim Goldie at Uplawmoor in Lanarkshire, a yard that has sent out 88 winners this season — that is a serious operation with real firepower. Goldie knows how to place a horse, and the fact that Uncle Liam keeps getting runs suggests the team believes there is a win in him. Lauren Young, who has ridden him in six of his 11 races, is yet to get that breakthrough moment with him, but given how consistently he has been finishing second lately, she may not have to wait much longer.