Ethical Diamond

Those two wins — at Ascot in June and at York in August, both in top-tier Class 2 races — mark Ethical Diamond out as a horse operating at a serious level. Class 2 races sit just below the very top tier of British racing, so winning twice at that grade in the space of two months is genuinely impressive. The York win was particularly striking. Mullins described it as a "copybook ride," saying that once the jockey let him go, "it was game over" — mightily impressive were the exact words used. It took 18 months to fully understand how to ride the horse, but now that the team has cracked it, Mullins believes there are bigger prizes to come.

What Mullins has learned is that Ethical Diamond needs fast, dry ground to be at his best. On that surface he has won 2 from 3 races — a 67% record. Compare that to his record in the very top Class 1 company, where he has yet to win from three attempts, and a picture emerges of a horse who can destroy the right opposition under the right conditions, but who has still to fully crack the absolute highest tier.

He returns now after a seven-month absence that included a trip to Del Mar in America. Mullins came away encouraged, noting that Ethical Diamond had drawn an awkward wide stall but ran a strong race — he had been hoping for a place and described getting one as "huge." The horse came home in great shape, and the trainer's focus is firmly on keeping him on the Flat, with a likely trip to Dubai on the agenda. Hurdle racing, for now, is not in the picture.

At six years old, Ethical Diamond is in the prime of a racehorse's career. He has already earned a Class 2 double at two of Britain's grandest tracks. The question now is whether the team, armed with 18 months of hard-won knowledge about exactly how to ride him, can finally unlock that elusive top-level win.