A heartening tale of two Harrys - if you know what I mean

Not in his wildest dreams did Harry Fry envisage the astonishing progress of Unowhatimeanharry. After all, the trainer bought his stable star with no larger ambitions than finding a potentially ‘fun horse' to represent his stable racing club.

"We thought if he could win a race that would be great," he admits. "We could never, ever have anticipated what he's done. We bought him as a 123-maiden hurdler; he's now 165 just over 12 months later. It's extraordinary. We felt he could be competitive in novice handicap company and we thought he'd run regularly, which is what you need for the racing club."

Since joining Fry for the 2015-16 season, the eight-year-old has done rather more than that, having been unbeaten in six starts and registering the stable's first Cheltenham Festival success in March in the Albert Bartlett. He progressed again with a promising comeback victory at Newbury that laid down a marker for the Ryanair World Hurdle; now comes the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday.