Venetian Sun

Trained by K R Burke at his yard in Coverham, North Yorkshire — a stable that has sent out 140 winners this season alone — Venetian Sun has made short work of every distance between five and six-and-a-half furlongs. She has raced three times at that range and won all three, a perfect record that suggests the trip suits her down to the ground. Her latest victory came at Newmarket's July course on 11 July in a Class 1 race, and it was the kind of win that tells you more than the bare result. Burke noted afterwards that she cruised to the front and went a couple of lengths clear before her jockey felt her ease up in front — not because she was tired, but because she is that laidback. She had already done enough, and she knew it.

What makes her profile so compelling is the quality of opposition she has already beaten. A Class 1 win at Ascot in June, followed by another at Newmarket in July, puts her among the best horses of her age in training. Burke has been unambiguous: he described her as the top two-year-old filly in Britain last season, a horse who beat the colts in the Prix Morny at Deauville and did it, by his account, on ground that was faster than ideal for her. His post-race words at Deauville were worth noting — he called her "unbelievable" and "special", and said she does everything in a race so relaxed it can almost look like she is not trying.

That relaxed, almost casual style is both her greatest asset and the one thing that keeps her the yard watchful. When a horse is as laid-back as Venetian Sun, the danger is she does just enough and no more. But three wins from five races, two of them at the highest level, and all of them at the right trip — that is not a horse coasting. That is a horse in total control.