Albert Einstein

His record on normal ground tells the most compelling part of the story: two wins from four races on a standard surface, a 50% win rate that is extraordinary at any level of the sport. Strip away the trickier conditions and this is a horse who wins half his races. He is also at his sharpest over the short, sharp distances of five to six-and-a-half furlongs — sprint trips where raw pace counts above everything else — and again he has won half his four races at those distances. Everything about his profile points to the same conclusion, and O'Brien's team have reached it too: Albert Einstein is a sprinter, and a genuine one.

His recent form makes for fascinating reading. His last six races, working backwards, read 14-2-3-6-1-1 — two wins, then a sixth, then a third, a second, and a fourteenth most recently. That 14th-placed finish on Saturday came on wet, muddy ground, and O'Brien was characteristically measured about it: the team were more interested in the horse behaving well than winning badly, and jockey Ryan Moore reported he was far from unmanageable. The ground, O'Brien suggested, simply removed the weapon Albert Einstein carries — his pace. He finds it almost physically difficult to go slowly. Most horses struggle to quicken; this one struggles to settle. On fast, dry ground with a strong pace to run at, that becomes an enormous asset.

He won at Naas in May and followed it up with a victory at The Curragh later that same month. The yard — which has already sent out 138 winners this season, a relentless operation — is still deciding which route to take next. But the direction of travel is clear enough. Get Albert Einstein back on decent ground, over a short distance, with something to chase, and he becomes a very different proposition.