Too Soon

The problem is it hasn't happened since. Too Soon has gone 18 months without winning, and its last six runs tell a story of a horse finding places rather than the front: two fifth-place finishes, two thirds, then an eighth and an eleventh in its two most recent outings. The direction of travel isn't encouraging. Across five attempts at Class 1 level, it hasn't won once. That's the brutal reality of elite company — the margins are tiny, and Too Soon has so far been on the wrong side of them every time.

Jockey Rhys Clutterbuck knows this horse as well as anyone, riding it in 8 of its 12 races and being aboard for that Epsom victory. Together they win roughly 1 in every 8 races — a modest return, though it includes the one that matters most. The horse is trained by Gary and Josh Moore at their yard in Lower Beeding, West Sussex, a team in fine form this season having sent out 94 winners — proof that when their horses aren't quite firing, it isn't for want of preparation.

Too Soon is a horse that has shown it can do something special, just not very often. One win from twelve races is a thin record, but that win came at one of racing's most famous tracks in a high-quality race. Whether it can rediscover that form is the question — and given the recent run of results, the answer isn't obvious yet.