Panic Attack

The overall numbers tell a quietly impressive story. Six wins and 16 places from 19 races means she has finished in the top three in nearly every race she has ever run — that is an extraordinary level of consistency. Her win rate of 32% means she wins almost 1 in every 3 races, which is exceptional at any level, let alone when most of her races have been at the very top of the sport. Most of her career has been spent at Class 2 level, where she has won just 1 from 8 races, which might look modest until you realise she has reserved her best performances for Class 1 — the elite tier — winning four of them. She saves her best for the biggest days.

She is also becoming something of a specialist at Newbury, winning 2 of her 3 races there including a top-level victory as recently as January. Cheltenham, where her career began with a win back in April 2022, has also been kind to her. These are not minor country tracks — they are two of the most respected courses in British racing, and winning at both, repeatedly, at the highest level is the mark of a serious horse.

Her regular jockey Tom Scudamore has won just 1 of their 7 races together — on the face of it a modest 14%, or roughly 1 in 7 — but that number does little to capture her recent explosion of form. Dan Skelton's yard has sent out 194 winners this season alone, and Panic Attack looks like one of the jewels of it. Skelton has described her current form as "phenomenal" and can barely contain his excitement about what she might do at Cheltenham's Mares' Chase, where she will receive weight from the favourite.

And there is something else bubbling away. After a run at Cheltenham recently — a race she did not win but jumped so brilliantly that Skelton called it "a beautiful Grand National trial" — the idea of sending her to Aintree for the world's most famous race has crept onto the agenda. The owner called it a dream. The trainer called it a possibility. For a horse running this well at ten, that feels like exactly the right level of ambition.