Moonlit Surf

What does offer some encouragement is who is doing the training. Owen Burrows operates out of Lambourn in Berkshire, one of the most respected racing villages in Britain, and his yard has been in decent form this season — 30 winners and counting. That kind of output means Burrows knows how to get horses ready to perform, and a horse trained there is at least in capable hands while it figures things out.

At this stage, Moonlit Surf is simply a work in progress. Two runs is not enough to write anyone off, and plenty of horses take time to find their feet before clicking into gear. The ones to watch are the next few races — if those sixth-place finishes start creeping forward, the profile starts to look very different.