Betty Clover

The partnership with jockey Georgia Dobie has been at the heart of Betty Clover's best moments. Together they have won 2 of their 10 races — roughly 1 in every 5 — and Johnson Houghton was effusive after York, saying Dobie "gave her the most beautiful ride" and deserved to be saluted. That win rate with a specific jockey, in top-level races, is a meaningful number. It suggests a horse that responds to the right hands.

After York, the ambition grew. Betty Clover finished second by a nose behind the Duke of Cambridge winner in a Listed race at Goodwood, then ran third in a Group 2 in France — the very top tier of European racing. Both results pointed to a horse genuinely operating at the sport's highest level. Then came Royal Ascot, where she was pulled up — Johnson Houghton believes she may have struck into a joint mid-race and, as she put it, "it's better to be safe than sorry." It was a frustrating interruption to what had been a remarkable trajectory.

Since then, the form has gone quiet. Betty Clover hasn't won in her last 6 races, and her most recent runs — finishing 5th, 5th, 16th and 13th — tell the story of a horse that hasn't recaptured her peak. She has managed 2 wins from 15 career races in total, around 1 in every 7, and races almost exclusively at the highest level, where margins are thin and form can be elusive. She thrives on normal ground and over shorter distances of five to six and a half furlongs, winning 2 from 6 in those conditions and 2 from 7 at her preferred trip. At four years old, trained out of Eve Johnson Houghton's yard in Blewbury — which has sent out 42 winners this season alone — the opportunity to rediscover that Class 1 form is still very much there.