Flemenstide

The win came with plenty of context. Faulkner's assistant Harry Derham explained afterwards that Flemenstide had simply taken time to grow into himself — described as big and backward, he was never going to be an early developer. He had even been awkward to school over jumps at the start, which hardly suggested a future Ascot winner. But patience paid off that November afternoon, and Derham was clear-eyed about where the horse was heading, calling him a staying chaser of the future with no rush to push things along.

That future, though, has been slow to arrive. Flemenstide has not won in the 54 months since that Ascot success, and his recent form makes for fairly grim reading — across his last six races, he has managed a fourth and a sixth and little else. He typically competes in Class 4 races these days, a step down from where he once shone, and he has yet to win at that level from three attempts. At 11, the window for him to rediscover that Ascot spark is getting smaller. Faulkner's yard has been in good form this season, sending out 16 winners, so the platform is there — Flemenstide just needs to find something he has not shown in a long while.