Cedar Creek

At Aintree, Cedar Creek found himself in a three-way battle through the closing stages, the kind of scrap where horses without genuine grit tend to fade and get swallowed up. He did the opposite — he dug in, fought it out, and pulled clear by half a length at the line. That tells you something about his temperament. Winning at Aintree, a track with a grand and slightly intimidating reputation, in a tight finish, on only his second career run, is a promising sign for a young horse still finding his feet.

Since then, it has been a slightly frustrating picture. He ran in a Listed race at Cheltenham on New Year's Day — Listed means one of the better races in the calendar — but the ground was wet and soft, and Rebecca Curtis, his trainer based in Newport, Pembrokeshire, has been open about the fact that those conditions did not suit him. His form figures for the last four runs read 10-8-1-5, which looks inconsistent, but the 1 is that Aintree win, and the softer ground outings either side of it help explain the rest. Curtis has sent out 18 winners from her yard this season, so Cedar Creek is in capable hands. He raced just one day ago and is currently active, though the trainer has made clear he will not be rushed back until the ground dries out and conditions are in his favour.

He is a young horse who has already shown he can fight — now it is a case of finding the right conditions to find out just how good he might be.