Pismo Beach

Two of her blank runs this season had nothing to do with ability. She scoped dirty on one occasion — meaning a respiratory issue that would stop any horse in its tracks — and on another she was pulled up with a severely sore back. Take those out of the picture and you have a horse her trainer Stuart Edmunds describes as tough and consistent, words that carry real weight when you know the full context. The rest of her recent form backs that up: a second place followed by a third and a fourth before that Hexham win, and a second place again in her most recent run at Newbury. That Newbury run is worth pausing on — it is a much higher-profile track than Hexham, and finishing second there suggests Pismo Beach is finding her feet at exactly the right time.

Edmunds, who trains out of Stewkley in Buckinghamshire and has sent out 24 winners already this season, knows her quirks well. She is famously free — meaning she can be a handful at home and tends to run on nervous energy rather than waiting patiently for the race to unfold. Charlie Hammond has been in the saddle for nine of her eleven races, winning once together, and that kind of familiarity matters with a horse that is not always straightforward to manage.

The plan now is to aim her at the Challenger Series Final at Warwick, which is exactly the sort of step-up occasion that tests whether a horse is a track-filler or something more. There is also talk of sending her over fences next season, which would represent a new chapter entirely. She has had a short break of 32 days since Newbury, enough to freshen up without losing momentum. Pismo Beach may not have dazzled yet, but she has the profile of a horse whose best is still ahead of her.