Ocean Echo

What gives the team genuine reason for optimism is who is doing the training. Mark Fahey operates out of Cloneygath in County Kildare, and his yard has already sent out 24 winners this season — a number that tells you this is a stable that knows how to get horses ready to perform. When a trainer is firing in winners at that rate, you tend to trust that a lightly raced three-year-old still without a win is a work in progress rather than a lost cause. Fahey will have seen horses take time to click before, and Ocean Echo, having raced just yesterday, is clearly still being actively campaigned.

The honest read on Ocean Echo right now is that this is a young horse on a learning curve. Three races is not many, and the jump from 14th to 2nd in the space of those runs is genuinely encouraging. Whether that improvement continues into a first victory is the question — but with a busy, winning yard behind it and a horse that is clearly improving, the answer might not be too far away.