Portnahapple

The four-year-old is trained by W P Mullins out of Muine Bheag in County Carlow, and that context matters enormously. Mullins is one of the most powerful training operations in the game, a yard that has already sent out 220 winners this season alone. When a horse sits in that stable, it is surrounded by serious talent and serious ambition. The fact that Portnahapple is running and placing regularly suggests the team believe there is a race to be won somewhere down the line.

Three runs, three second-place finishes. That is a strange and slightly maddening record — consistently good enough to be right there at the finish, but not yet good enough to win. For the horse's the yard, it will feel like knocking on a door that keeps almost opening. The interesting question now is whether Portnahapple is a horse that simply needs the right opportunity, or one that has found a comfortable level just below the winners' enclosure. Having raced just one day ago, we won't have to wait long to find out which way this story goes.