Georg Zhukov

What makes that victory interesting is where it fits in his recent form. Looking at his last six races — and reading the most recent first — you see a 5th, a non-finish of some kind, a 12th, then that winning 1st, followed by a 2nd and an 8th. In other words, he burst into form with a win and a runner-up finish back to back, then lost his way a little before the most recent run. He is clearly a horse with the ability to compete when things click, but one who blows hot and cold.

His sweet spot in terms of distance is somewhere between a mile and one furlong and a mile and two furlongs. At those trips, he has won 1 from 10 races — 10%, or roughly 1 in every 10 — which is a meaningful improvement on his overall record and tells you his trainer, Eamonn O'Connell, has worked out where this horse is most at home. O'Connell trains out of Cullen in County Tipperary and has sent out four winners already this season, so this is a yard that knows how to get a horse ready to win.

The one puzzling note is the partnership with jockey Chris Hayes. The two have teamed up six times without winning together, and yet Hayes keeps getting the ride — which suggests the team around the horse sees something in that combination even if the results haven't shown it yet. Georg Zhukov is currently active and racing, so whatever comes next, it will tell us whether the Dundalk win was the start of something or just a brief bright spot in a career that has asked more questions than it has answered.