Madness d'Elle

That belief comes from the very top. Trainer Willie Mullins — whose yard at Muine Bheag in Co Carlow has sent out a remarkable 220 winners already this season — has pointed to a promising summer performance over hurdles at the prestigious French track Auteuil as evidence of real potential. Mullins doesn't use the word "hopefully" lightly, and he's used it in the same breath as the Triumph Hurdle, one of the most celebrated races for young hurdlers in the sport. That's not a throwaway comment. That's a target.

The horse raced just yesterday, so it is very much a live, active story. Jockey Paul Townend — one of the best in the business — offered a candid verdict after a recent run at Gowran Park that helps explain why the record doesn't tell the full story. The race was run at an unusually slow pace, which left Madness d'Elle too much time to think and he became agitated and difficult to settle — "lairy" was Townend's word for it. Once the tempo lifted and they got into a proper rhythm, the horse jumped cleanly and his experience showed. It was an awkward, scrappy race for everyone, and Townend was clear that the horse came through it well enough. "A grand horse" was his conclusion — which, coming from a jockey who rides for Willie Mullins every week, means something.

So what you have here is a horse that hasn't won yet but is trained by the most powerful yard in jumping, has been specifically flagged as a potential big-race contender, and has a jockey of Townend's calibre happy to make excuses for a tricky run rather than writing the horse off. The pieces are pointing in one direction. The wins haven't come yet — but the expectation clearly is that they will.