Scandinavia

The winning streak currently stands at five in a row. Go back through those results — Leopardstown this week, before that Doncaster in September, Goodwood in July, Newmarket in July, and Navan in May 2025 — and what you see is a horse that went from its first career win to back-to-back Group 1 victories in the space of a few months. Aidan O'Brien has noted that Scandinavia always looked like a Cup horse — meaning a long-distance specialist — and the Goodwood Cup and the St Leger, two of the most prestigious staying races in the calendar, proved exactly that. His yard has sent out 144 winners this season alone, which tells you something about the operation, but even within that powerhouse, Scandinavia stands out.

O'Brien described him after Doncaster as "hardy" and said he was getting better every single week, which is a striking thing to say about a horse that had just won a top race. There was a note of caution about the ground at Doncaster — the conditions were on the slow, wet side, and the team felt that on faster, drier ground you would see an even better horse. That is both reassuring about what he achieved that day and quietly exciting about what may still be to come. The trainer has also mentioned the Melbourne Cup as a possibility, which would be one of the sport's great adventures.

Wayne Lordan has ridden him in five of his ten races, winning two of them, but it is a horse that has clearly performed under several jockeys. Whoever is in the saddle, Scandinavia seems to handle the occasion. At a time when five-race winning streaks at the highest level are rare enough to be genuinely newsworthy, this horse is worth paying attention to.