Mitbaahy

That level is genuinely elite. Three of his five wins have come in top-tier Class 1 races, and a fourth came in a Class 2. He won at Sandown Park in June 2022, followed by Newbury that September, and then topped it with a memorable win at Chester in August 2023. Between those performances, he also beat two Group 1 winners in the Greenlands Stakes before landing what is probably his finest result — a win at The Curragh in May 2024. His jockey Jamie Spencer described feeling him "come alive" at the two-pole, the horse delivering a turn of foot from off the pace to get home over a trip that had previously been considered a question mark. That is what a proper racehorse does on a big occasion.

He has won 3 of his 7 races on normal ground, a 43% win rate that suggests conditions matter — he is clearly at his best when the track is neither waterlogged nor baked hard. On his favoured surface, he wins nearly half the time, which is a remarkable number for any horse competing mostly at the top level.

His recent form tells a more mixed story — finishes of 7, 1, 7, 11, 2 and 12 in his last six races — and it is now 23 months since that Curragh victory. But his trainer Charles Hills is enthusiastic, describing him as unusually laid-back for a sprinter and easy to work with, noting that some of his less impressive finishing positions have come when he was simply drawn on the wrong side of the track. Regular rider David Egan has won 2 of their 8 races together. At 7, Mitbaahy is not a young horse, but he raced just 11 days ago and is clearly still at it — a seasoned campaigner who has already proved he can win at the very highest level.