Shahada Ace

That win at Tipperary came over a distance between seven furlongs and a mile, and it's in that range where Shahada Ace has done its best work — winning 1 from 7 races at those trips, or about 1 in every 7. It's a narrow window, but knowing a horse's ideal distance is half the battle in this sport, and the team now has a clear picture of where to aim.

Andrew Slattery does it all here — he trains the horse and he rides it too, which is a relatively rare combination and speaks to a yard that operates with real hands-on involvement. Slattery has been aboard for 8 of the 11 races, winning once together, and his yard has been in good form this season with 60 winners sent out. That's a healthy, productive operation, and having a trainer who also rides gives him a direct feel for how a horse is developing that most yards simply don't have. The recent form figures of 9-blank-8-1-4-3 tell a mixed story — the blank suggests a run that didn't result in a finishing position, but there's a second and third in there alongside the win, which shows the horse is capable of running into a place even when victory stays out of reach. Shahada Ace raced just one day ago, so this is a horse firmly in the thick of its season right now.