Lady Dora Mae

She got off the mark at Southwell in January, which is about as unglamorous a starting point as racing offers — an all-weather track in Nottinghamshire that regulars call "the Fibresand". But winning there matters, because it proves a horse can handle a different surface and grind out a result. From there, she's moved steadily upwards. George Boughey's team at Newmarket — one of the most productive yards in Britain this season, having sent out 99 winners — clearly had a plan for her, and it's been working. Boughey noted earlier in the spring that she'd shown real determination to win at Kempton, and that she was thriving with the warmer weather. The intention was to aim her at a £50,000 race at Lingfield on All-Weather Championships finals day, a significant target for a young horse.

Whether that Lingfield run materialised or not, she kept progressing. Her most recent win came at Windsor on 23 May — turf, a summer evening track, a completely different test from where she started — and she passed it. That's the detail worth sitting with: she began the year on an artificial surface in the middle of winter and ended the spring winning on grass in the sunshine. That kind of adaptability is exactly what trainers are looking for.

Her recent form reads 6-2-2-1-2-8, going backwards from yesterday. Ignore the 6th and 8th for a moment — the middle of that sequence shows three consecutive placings either side of a win, meaning she's been competitive in almost everything she's run in lately. She raced just yesterday, which means she's in the thick of a busy summer campaign. At three years old, with this much racing already banked and this much consistency to show for it, Lady Dora Mae looks like a horse who is still improving and whose best days are probably still ahead of her.