Minnie Hauk

What makes her truly exceptional is her record in the very best races. In Class 1 contests — the top tier of British racing — she is unbeaten: three wins from three attempts. She also has an extraordinary affinity for normal ground conditions, winning all four races she has run on it. More striking still is her partnership with jockey Ryan Moore, who has ridden her five times and won every single race. That is not luck; that is a working relationship that has found something special.

Aidan O'Brien, her trainer at Cashel in Ireland, has guided Minnie Hauk through a remarkable trajectory. Last year as a three-year-old, she won three Group 1 races — the Oaks, the Irish Oaks, and the Yorkshire Oaks — before finishing second in the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most demanding races in world racing. This year, she has visibly matured. O'Brien notes she is "twice as wide" — stronger in her physique and mentally sharper. After a recent outing at the Curragh, she spoke of her travelling with "all the zest she did last year" and winning "very snugly," the kind of relaxed superiority that signals a horse in peak condition. The plan is the Tattersalls Gold Cup, with a possible tilt at Ascot to follow. Just this week, she won at Ascot, cementing her status as a living thoroughbred anomaly: a horse that wins almost everything you point her at, ridden by a jockey who has never lost on her back.