Central Command

The overall record reads one win and a place from four races, which works out at winning one in every four attempts. That is a modest tally on paper, but four races is barely enough to form a proper opinion of a young horse. The recent sequence of 1-5-5-7 tells a familiar story of a horse that has taken time to click — a couple of mid-field finishes before that Newcastle breakthrough. Whether that win marks a turning point or was a fortunate one-off is exactly the kind of question the next few months will answer.

What does give genuine cause for optimism is who is doing the training. Simon and Ed Crisford operate out of Newmarket, the heartland of British flat racing, and their yard has been in serious form this season — 79 winners already. A stable firing at that rate knows how to place its horses well and get them ready to win. The fact that Central Command has been brought to the track four times at three years old and has now broken through suggests the team have been patient and methodical rather than rushing it along.

At this stage of the season, with the win still barely 24 hours old, Central Command is a horse to keep an eye on rather than one to make grand claims about. But fresh winners trained by in-form yards at Newmarket have a habit of not stopping at just the one.