Away And Gone

What does offer some encouragement is who is doing the training. Donnacha Aidan O'Brien operates out of Ballyroe in County Tipperary, and the yard has sent out 31 winners already this season — a level of output that tells you this is a serious, well-resourced operation that knows how to get horses ready to run. When a stable of that calibre keeps running a horse, it usually means they believe there is more to come. Away And Gone raced just one day ago, so the yard — the team, rather — are clearly not shy about keeping this horse active while they search for improvement.

At two years old, the horse is right at the beginning of its story. Some take the whole of their first season just to work out what racing is about. The question is whether that fourth-place finish represents a ceiling or a glimpse of something worth waiting for. For now, Away And Gone remains a work in progress — one that hasn't shown its hand yet.