Big Cypress

What gives genuine cause for optimism is who is doing the training. Joseph Patrick O'Brien, based at Owning Hill in Co Kilkenny, has sent out 160 winners already this season — that is a remarkable volume of success and speaks to a yard operating at the very top of its game. When a horse is trained somewhere that busy and productive, it tends to mean it is getting every possible chance to show what it can do. Big Cypress hasn't converted yet, but it has placed once from three races, so it isn't running without purpose.

The honest picture right now is that Big Cypress is an unproven horse in capable hands. Zero wins from three races is nothing to write home about, but three races is also a very small sample — plenty of horses take time to find their feet. The yard clearly knows how to win races, and with the horse still active and racing as recently as yesterday, the next chapter could come very soon.