Loughrea

The trainer is Andrew Slattery, operating out of Thurles in County Tipperary, and this is a stable very much in form. Sixty winners already on the board this season is a serious tally — it tells you this is not a yard that sends horses out just to make up the numbers. When Slattery's horses turn up, they tend to be ready to run. For a horse like Loughrea, sitting at the bottom of the learning curve, being in that kind of environment matters. Good stables tend to know when a young horse is ready to step forward.

Two races is a tiny sample, of course, and drawing firm conclusions from it would be getting ahead of the evidence. What we can say is that Loughrea is improving, is currently active, and is trained by someone who clearly knows how to win races. The first win is still to come — but on this evidence, the wait may not be a long one.