Larzac

What makes Larzac worth watching is less about what he has done and more about where he lives. He is trained by Willie Mullins at Muine Bheag in County Carlow — quite simply one of the most powerful yards in racing. This season alone, Mullins has sent out 230 winners, a number that speaks to an operation running at extraordinary scale and quality. When a trainer of that calibre keeps faith with a horse that has not yet won, it tends to mean something.

And Mullins has been candid about his expectations. He admits that outings at Cheltenham and Punchestown last season — two of the biggest stages in the sport — came too soon. The horse, he felt, was not mature enough for that level. Over the summer, though, Larzac has apparently done enough to suggest he has grown into himself. The plan is to keep him over hurdles for now, with an eye on races later in the season where he might be competing against horses with similar form levels, and the longer-term vision is of a chaser — a horse that jumps fences rather than hurdles, which is generally where the most exciting talent ends up in this part of the sport.

So Larzac is a project, not a product. Zero wins from five races would look discouraging written on any other training sheet, but when the trainer is Willie Mullins and the horse is still only five, patience feels entirely reasonable. The question is whether the maturity Mullins has spotted at home starts showing up on a racecourse. When it does, he could move quickly.