Wrist Art

Those two wins, when they came, arrived in quick succession — Punchestown in September 2023 and then Thurles the following October — which tells you Wrist Art had a moment of genuine form rather than two fluky results scattered across years. Since then, though, the nine-year-old has gone quiet. Six races without a win, recent finishing positions of 7-7-10-8-6-3, and a spell that has stretched from autumn 2023 to the present day without finding the winner's spot.

The most intriguing part of Wrist Art's profile is actually the company the horse keeps. Racing at Class 6 — the lowest tier of competition in Britain — you might expect a win or two to have crept in somewhere. Wrist Art has managed zero from seven attempts at that level, which is the kind of stat that makes you raise an eyebrow. That is not a horse being too good for its company; that is a horse being found out even at the most accessible level.

Wayne Hassett, who partners Wrist Art more than any other jockey, has at least coaxed both career wins out of the horse — 2 from 11 rides together, which works out at roughly 1 in every 5 races when they team up. That is a solid personal record between the two, even if the wider picture is leaner. And the training operation behind the horse is anything but small-time: James Owen's yard in Newmarket has sent out 204 winners this season alone, which is a substantial operation by any measure.

Wrist Art raced just yesterday, so whatever happens next is genuinely close. At nine years old, with a long career behind and the winner's circle feeling distant after nearly three years away from it, the question now is whether there is one more good day left in the tank — or whether those back-to-back wins in 2023 represent the high-water mark of a career that gave its best in two bright autumn months.