Mirsky

He is seven years old now and trained by David O'Meara at Upper Helmsley in North Yorkshire, one of the most productive yards in Britain this season with 107 winners sent out. O'Meara has been patient with Mirsky, and that patience has started to pay off. After the Epsom win, the trainer admitted it had taken a while to get the measure of the horse, but said he always believed something like that performance was inside him. The Royal Hunt Cup — a fiercely competitive race run at Royal Ascot — was mentioned as a next step, which tells you plenty about the level the team now think Mirsky is operating at.

His overall record reads three wins and five places from 18 races, which works out at winning roughly 1 in every 6 races. That sounds modest, but the context matters: twelve of those races have been at Class 2 level, among the better horses in the country, and he has won one of those. He is also a horse who only really finds top gear on fast, dry ground — two wins from eight races on those conditions, meaning he wins about 1 in every 4 times the ground suits him. In wet or soft conditions, he has yet to win.

Then there is Thirsk. He has raced there just three times and won twice, which is the kind of record that makes a course feel like a second home. Jockey Mark Winn described the last Thirsk win as almost too easy — Mirsky travelled so well into the race that he arrived at the front earlier than anyone wanted, yet kept fighting and held on. Winn called him a willing companion, which in plain terms means a horse that does not give up when things get uncomfortable. For a horse who spent so long promising without delivering, that streak of stubbornness finally seems to be working in everyone's favour.