'He's so tough - you keep throwing him in the deep end and he keeps swimming'

He is being hailed as a people's champion after finishing runner-up in the 2,000 Guineas, and those closest to him are convinced it was no fluke, but it is testament to the psychological resilience of Tip Two Win that his effort in the colts' Classic didn't fizzle out before he even reached the track.

He's not the biggest, his dam was a 70-rated handicapper and even his admiring trainer Roger Teal describes him as "a bit like a filly", so when he found himself in the Newmarket paddock being dwarfed by the horse they're calling a monster, he would have been excused for developing a massive inferiority complex and hightailing it back home to Berkshire.

As it was, he took a deep breath, looked Ballydoyle's finest in the eye and served it up to him on the racecourse. Tip Two Win may have come off second best, but he won himself a lot of new friends and it's no surprise that Teal remains awestruck at what his diminutive stable star has achieved.