Outmaster

Nicholls is one of the most decorated trainers in the country, based at his famous yard in Ditcheat, Somerset, and his operation has sent out 92 winners already this season alone. That's not a yard that buys horses casually. When Nicholls picked up Outmaster shortly after that point-to-point win, he admitted he wasn't entirely sure how much that form was worth — those races can be a mixed bag in terms of quality — but said he liked what he saw and that the horse had been doing everything right in training. That kind of quiet confidence from a trainer of his calibre tends to mean something.

What we know for certain is that Outmaster has never lost a race. One start, one win, yesterday, at Newton Abbot. It's the smallest possible sample size, of course, and it would be getting ahead of ourselves to read too much into it. But a horse that wins first time out under rules, in the hands of one of Britain's most successful yards, and is already doing things that please his trainer — that's a horse worth watching as the picture becomes clearer.