Beautify

Trained by Aidan P O'Brien at Cashel in County Tipperary, Beautify is in one of the most powerful yards in the world. O'Brien's team has sent out 144 winners already this season alone — a number that gives a sense of the scale and ambition of the operation. Her most recent two runs have both resulted in eighth-place finishes, but those need to be read in context: O'Brien has been quite open about where this horse is headed, and it is not sprint handicaps on a wet Tuesday afternoon. The plan, as things stand, is to target the French Guineas, a top-level mile race on a turning track in Paris. The thinking is that a slightly easier mile around a sweeping bend might suit her style of racing better than a straight, flat-out test.

Her best racing has come over short distances — between five furlongs and six and a half furlongs — where she has won 1 from 3 races, or just over a third of her outings at those trips. That combination of speed at short distances and the belief she can see out a mile is exactly what you want in a horse being pointed at one of the season's big prizes. Jockey Ryan Moore, one of the most respected riders in the sport, rode her to that Group 2 win and reportedly came away convinced she had more to give at slightly longer distances. When Ryan Moore says he wants to ride a horse again over further, people listen.

She raced just one day ago, so Beautify is very much in the thick of her season. The next few months will tell us whether that Curragh win was a glimpse of something genuinely special, or a high-water mark. The people closest to her clearly believe it was the former.