Warriors Choice

That said, there are reasons not to write Warriors Choice off entirely. The horse raced just yesterday, which tells you the team are still actively campaigning it and clearly believe there is something worth working with. Tom Dascombe, who trains the horse from his yard at Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, has sent out 22 winners already this season — that is a stable in decent form, and Dascombe knows how to find the right race for a horse once the pieces start to come together. A trainer running a productive yard doesn't keep a horse in training without a reason.

The more encouraging detail from those six races is that fifth and fourth place earlier in the sequence show Warriors Choice has at least been competitive at some point. The slide back to three eighths is the concern, but form can be messy with young horses still learning the job. Whether Warriors Choice can rediscover that modest earlier spark — and eventually turn it into a first win — is the question the yard will be working hard to answer.