J G Coogan

The most telling detail is the partnership with Stolen Treasure, a horse that has lined up nine times under Coogan's care without finding the winner's enclosure once. Nine races together with nothing to show for it is the kind of statistic that says something — either about the horse's level, the races being targeted, or simply bad luck running longer than it should. Probably some combination of all three.

To be fair, four years is still early in a training career. The sport is full of trainers who spent years in the wilderness before things clicked. But right now, Coogan's stable is in a difficult moment, and the honest question is whether the horses coming through the yard are good enough, or whether this is simply a purple patch of misfortune waiting to break. The answer to that question will define the next chapter of this career considerably more than the last 44 races have.