Rob Hornby: 'It was a massively difficult year - it was hard to watch knowing I could have done the job just as well'

His jockey admits to being unceremoniously dumped on the floor by him on multiple occasions and his work rider warns that if you step out of line in his stable, he'll as often as not bite you, just because he can.

If he were a teenage human, Westover would probably have an Asbo, yet at Kimpton Down Stables you won't hear a word said against him. It seems you can get away with quite a lot when you're a 7-1 shot for the Arc.

Joao Cardoso, barn manager at Ralph Beckett's high-powered yard, partners the strapping four-year-old in all his routine work and has seen every side of his character. He bears the scars and you might think he'd bear a grudge, too, but not a bit of it. Right now, having partnered him in a routine yet enthusiastic piece of work up the all-weather, he's applying liberal doses of miraculous Manuka honey to Westover's mouth, for medicinal purposes of course, although he admits the horse has grown pretty fond of the stuff.