Minnie Hauk

The highlights speak for themselves. A win at Chester in May 2025, then the Oaks at Epsom in June — one of the most famous races in the world — followed by the Yorkshire Oaks at York in August. All three are top-level, Class 1 races, the very best her sport has to offer. She has run in three races at that level and won all three. The only blemish came at Longchamp, where she was just caught close home — an effort her co-owner Michael Tabor described as "a blinder", and her trainer Aidan O'Brien called "a great race". Losing a photo-finish at Longchamp while only two years old is not something to apologise for.

O'Brien, whose yard at Cashel in County Tipperary has sent out 144 winners this season alone, has since reflected that finishing her campaign after the Longchamp run might have been the wiser call — she was still only a three-year-old filly at that point. A subsequent run in the United States did not go to plan, with jockey Christophe Soumillon noting she over-raced in a fast-run contest and never quite settled. But O'Brien is clear that she is stronger now, describing her as "twice as wide" after a recent workout, and plainly excited about what this season holds.

She has not raced for eight months, so there will naturally be questions about how she returns from that break. But the evidence of what came before that layoff — five wins from six races, three top-level victories, a placed run at the Arc — suggests a horse with genuine class. When O'Brien says she came up in front at the Curragh on a Sunday morning and "we couldn't have been happier", that is the sound of a trainer who knows he has something special to look forward to.