Califet En Vol

The Kempton connection is worth noting. Two wins from three races at that track is the kind of record that makes trainers pick up the phone and check the entries the moment a race there appears on the radar. Something about the place suits him — possibly the shape of the circuit, possibly the way races tend to be run there — but whatever it is, he has made it his own. He also appears to thrive when conditions turn soft and wet underfoot, winning 2 of his 4 races on that kind of surface, a 50% record that is hard to argue with.

Behind the numbers is a horse that has not had the smoothest journey. Nicky Henderson, whose yard at Upper Lambourn has sent out an extraordinary 85 winners this season alone, has spoken candidly about a serious injury scare after Califet En Vol made a bad mistake at the second-last in a Grade 1 at Aintree and came home lame on his off-fore. The relief in Henderson's voice when he described the horse as "fine now" was obvious. Before the injury, the Huntingdon win had already shown something important: ridden by Nico de Boinville, who partners him in nine of his eleven races and wins 1 in every 3 of those rides, the horse finished powerfully through the closing stages to outgrind his rivals — exactly the kind of stamina-fuelled finish that suggests longer distances over fences could suit him well.

The recent form — a seventh, a fourth, then a win, a fifth, a third, and a second in his last six races — reads like a horse finding his level after some scrappy runs, then putting it all together at the right moment. He raced just yesterday, which makes this a live, active campaign rather than ancient history. With Henderson's operation firing at full tilt and De Boinville in the plate, Califet En Vol looks like a horse with more to say.