Chantilly Lace

Beckett is one of the most respected trainers in the country, and his yard at Kimpton in Hampshire has sent out 109 winners already this season alone — roughly one every few days. When a trainer operating at that volume and that level keeps faith with a horse, it is worth paying attention. Chantilly Lace's recent form reads 5-5-3-5-5-1 from most recent to oldest, which on the surface looks patchy, but her one placing and that single win both suggest a horse capable of competing when things fall right. She wins at a rate of roughly 1 in every 6 races overall, but zoom in to her best distance — seven furlongs to a mile — and that improves to 1 win from 3 races, or 1 in 3, which is a significantly more encouraging picture.

Her four-year-old season is only just getting under way, and Beckett has been candid about the challenges of the spring. She ran well in the Guineas last year, one of the most prestigious mile races in the calendar, and the expectation was that she would kick on from there. It did not quite happen, which was frustrating for the team. This spring has been similarly slow to ignite — the ground conditions have not suited her early preparation — but Beckett believes she may stay further than a mile as she matures, which opens up new possibilities. A race like the Middleton Stakes has been floated as a potential target. At four, and with her best racing presumably still ahead of her, Chantilly Lace is the kind of horse where the story feels far from finished.