Ouija Board still going great guns a decade after defining battle

The form book is a useful tool when assessing the future but an incomplete guide to the past. A number '1' in the stark black and white of statistical record is a win, that much is certain, but the bare figure can conceal as much as it reveals.

Some wins are achieved as a matter of routine, others delivered with verve and elan, but a few of the most memorable have to be gained the hard way, rough-hewn from the granite of legend in a fashion that reveals not just a horse's strengths but also its response to a test of its limitations.

The Nassau Stakes of 2006 was just such a victory. If the betting was to be believed, it looked a romp for the even-money favourite Ouija Board. Already a five-time winner at the highest level, she was rated the best of the seven-strong field, seemed well suited by the good to firm ground and was in the thick of a campaign that, although it had been characterised more by ill fortune than unrelenting success, had already delivered a win in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot that suggested she was at the top of her game.