Wahraan

The eight-year-old has won 2 races from 26 outings — roughly 1 in every 13 — which on paper looks modest. But dig a little deeper and you start to see where the talent is hiding. Over longer distances, from a mile and six furlongs up to two miles, he has won 2 from 12 (winning about 1 in every 6 at those trips), and at Class 4 level — the sort of races where horses like him are expected to compete — he has a similar record: 2 wins from 11, or roughly 1 in 5. The numbers are not spectacular, but they are honest. The issue has never been the level. The issue is the brain.

Trainer Jessica Bedi, based at Kirklevington in North Yorkshire, puts it bluntly: Wahraan is very talented and an absolute rogue. He runs the most extraordinary races, she says, often making life spectacularly hard for himself before suddenly deciding to get on with it. That October win at Southwell — now 19 months ago and his most recent — was apparently preceded by him trailing miles behind the field before locking on and finishing third in a previous run, an approach Bedi describes as the most inefficient and energy-consuming race of all time. And yet somehow he still gets home. That is the maddening and fascinating thing about him.

Jockey Saffie Osborne has partnered him 12 times and won once together — that 1-from-12 relationship probably tells its own story about how unpredictable a ride he can be. His recent form of 10-4-6-6-3-2 shows he is capable of placing, but winning has been a different matter across the last six races. Bedi is working on unlocking whatever it is that holds him back, and believes a winter reset could be the key — suggesting there is a good race in him off his current rating of 84 if the penny ever drops. He raced just yesterday, so he remains very much in action. Whether Wahraan eventually fulfils what his trainer believes he is capable of is genuinely one of the more interesting open questions in a small yard with high hopes for a horse who does things entirely on his own terms.