The horse comes from respectable stock. Dark Angel, the sire, is a proven racehorse with a good record of passing on speed to his offspring. The dam is by Kodiac, another solid genetic ingredient. On paper, there's nothing to suggest Lizzie Bennet lacks the raw materials to compete, but pedigree alone never won a race.
What works in the horse's favour is the trainer. Kevin Ryan's Hambleton yard in North Yorkshire has been in fine form this season, with 45 winners already to their name. That kind of consistency suggests a team that knows how to prepare a horse properly and get it ready for its first outing. A debut can go wrong in a thousand small ways — a young horse can panic, or simply not understand what's being asked of it — but a yard with that record will have minimised the preventable mistakes. Whether Lizzie Bennet has the talent and temperament to make a winning start is something only the racecourse will reveal.