Even Aidan O'Brien gets tense around the weekend of the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the trainer is taking a philosophical approach to the showpiece at Longchamp.
Love, Snowfall and Broome all go in the 100th edition of the Arc on Sunday, with Snowfall - the winner of the English, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks - the one a lot of eyes will be locked on.
O'Brien has twice won the race, with Dylan Thomas in 2007 and Found in 2016. He knows full well the scale of the challenge that lies ahead in Paris this weekend.
"Through the season nobody ever really lets their guard down from race to race anyway but obviously Arc weekend is a massive weekend and everyone is a little more tense than other weeks," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"But that's good because it makes sure everybody's very careful with everything. When you get this close, details become very important.
"I suppose you want a horse that's going to get the trip well, that's going to stay, that will handle all types of ground and that can quicken. Longchamp can be a tactical race. You could be drawn wide, you have to have pace to get in position if that's where you're drawn. You just need a very good horse really."
And O'Brien certainly has that. Expanding on the chances of his three hopes, he said: "Broome is a horse that stays very well. He's a very good mind. He can go forward and get the trip very well.
"Love is a Guineas winner and an Oaks winner. She's a bit more class. She has technical speed as well. She probably wouldn't want the ground too soft because she's a very low-moving filly.
"Snowfall has done it all on different types of ground this year. She has pace, she seems to get the mile and a half well. She's a three-and-a-half-year-old filly and sometimes the for the three-and-a-half-year-old fillies the allowance can be a help in the autumn.
"They all have different make-ups and all come from different places but obviously you think and hope that if they go well on the day that you would have chances."
For all his achievements, O'Brien said he still feels a very special buzz heading to France for this showpiece.
"They're massive achievements for everyone here," he added.
"It's a very difficult race to win. To win any of those races ever is massive. You don't expect to win them because they are too hard to win. You just hope to have horses good enough to compete.
"You try to prepare the horses as best you can and everyone does their best to have them there. Then, hopefully they run well."
Snowfall starts from stall nine, Broome stall seven and Love was drawn in stall four. The Dermot Weld-trained Tarnawa, winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Turf, has long been towards the head of the market and has been drawn in stall three.
