Gelato

What makes the picture more complicated is the six-month absence. Gelato last raced roughly half a year ago, which at this stage of a young horse's life is a significant chunk of time. Whether that break was planned or forced by something else entirely, the trainer hasn't shared — but horses do sometimes come back from a long spell looking like a different animal. Equally, they sometimes come back exactly the same. For Gelato, only the next race will tell us which camp it falls into.

The yard responsible for turning this around is run by Kieran P Cotter out of Portarlington in County Laois, and it is not a struggling operation — seven winners on the board this season shows the team knows how to get a horse ready to win. If anyone can find the right opportunity to get Gelato off the mark, it is probably them. The question is whether the horse itself has enough ability to take it.