Highfield Princess can set things right in the Friday Goodwood feature - here's why

The last thing you would have suspected of the 2022 version of Highfield Princess is that she would find it hard to keep winning. All three of her runs this season have been creditable on Racing Post Ratings, so she is not regressive. Yet while her 120-ish performances last year were dominant, this year she has consistently come up just short.

The opposition has not improved any. What has been constant in Highfield Princess's runs this season is that she has not hit the line as hard as in 2022.

Given her attitude, it is unlikely Highfield Princess has stopped putting it all in under pressure. We are left with two main hypotheses. She might be showing her career-long tendency to thrive on racing. In every season she has raced, she has peaked no earlier than the Ebor meeting. Or it could be that she is one of those horses who gets faster as they age.