Epic Poet

What happened next was more dramatic still. The horse was sent to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the winter, and there something extraordinary occurred. In roughly five months, he won around half a million pounds — a staggering haul that completely transformed how his the yard view him. He's now back in Britain competing at the sport's top level, though the form hasn't quite translated back to these shores. His recent six races show the pattern: a couple of placed efforts (third and fourth finishes) but nothing close to repeating that miracle winter campaign. Most recently he ran at York in a top-tier race and finished second, a respectable effort but one that underscored the challenge of matching those Middle Eastern victories at home.

Trainer David O'Meara, based in North Yorkshire, sees him as a horse suited to specific conditions and a specific strategy. Epic Poet runs best over middle distances, winning 2 of 12 races when given a trip between 1 mile 6 furlongs and 2 miles, and he has a clear preference for fast, dry ground. The plan is to run him sparingly through the British summer and aim at another winter campaign abroad — the sort of targeted, selective approach that seems to have unlocked what makes this horse tick. Daniel Tudhope, his most frequent jockey, has been in the saddle for both wins, though the partnership hasn't always been straightforward. What O'Meara has learned is that Epic Poet is at his best when given time to recover and then pointed at the races that suit him most. For a seven-year-old horse that sat on just a single win for most of his existence, that's a remarkable reinvention.