Walk Away Harry

What makes his story slightly poignant is how long it has been since that single win. It came forty months ago at Punchestown, and he hasn't crossed the line first since. In his last six outings, his form has been a steady, uninspiring drift downwards — a fourth place being his best effort in that recent stretch, with a string of ninth and fourteenth place finishes suggesting he is running more out of habit than hope. He raced just yesterday, so he is still active and still trying, which says something about the commitment of his trainer Charles Coakley and his regular pilot Philip Byrnes, who has partnered him six times without a win.

For a horse with only one win in nearly two decades of racing, the question becomes not whether he will win again, but why he keeps running at all. The answer, usually, is that he has found a level where he is competitive enough to merit continued racing, and his the yard believe there is still something left to prove. But forty months between wins is a long drought, and the recent form suggests Walk Away Harry is, at this stage of his career, a horse running for the love of it rather than any realistic chance of breaking his losing streak.