Lion Of Mali

The shape of that recent form is encouraging. A win just this week at Newbury on 26 August, followed by a second and another second before that, bookended by wins earlier in the sequence — this is a horse in confident rhythm, not one struggling at the threshold. The one blip was a fifth-place finish, but otherwise it has been mixing wins with placings, suggesting the horse has the consistency that separates genuine prospects from one-hit wonders.

James Fanshawe's Newmarket yard has already sent out 44 winners this season, so Lion Of Mali is being trained in a stable firing on all cylinders. The horse's first win came at Wolverhampton back in February, and from that point it has built a track record of racing competitively across different courses. At just three years old, with that kind of win rate and form trajectory, there is clearly room for this horse to step up and prove itself against tougher opposition. Right now, it looks like one worth watching.