Ponte Carlo

What's worth noting is the yard behind it. Trainer Tim Easterby, based at Great Habton in North Yorkshire, has sent out 126 winners already this season — a genuinely prolific operation that knows how to place young horses to their advantage. Having that kind of support structure behind a two-year-old still searching for a first win is no small thing. Easterby's team has the experience to figure out where and when Ponte Carlo is most likely to get off the mark.

The most recent run came just yesterday, so this is a horse very much in active campaigning mode. The form figures — a mid-field finish followed by that placed effort — suggest a horse that is learning and improving without yet finding the winning thread. For a two-year-old with only two races under its belt, that is entirely normal. The question is simply where the breakthrough comes.