Great Barrier Reef

What makes that debut result worth paying attention to is who is behind it. Great Barrier Reef is trained by Aidan P O'Brien at Cashel in County Tipperary, arguably the most powerful racing operation in the world. The yard has already sent out 144 winners this season alone — that is not a misprint. To put it in perspective, most trainers would consider 144 winners a career highlight; O'Brien's team is doing it in a single campaign. When a horse emerges from that environment and wins first time out, it carries a certain weight of expectation, because this is a yard that knows exactly what it is doing with a young horse.

It is still very early days, and one race tells you only so much. But a clean, winning debut at The Curragh, for one of the sport's elite trainers, is about as promising a beginning as a two-year-old can have. The story is just getting started.