Surrey King

What keeps this profile from being purely gloomy is the trainer behind it. Hughie Morrison operates out of East Ilsley in Berkshire, a quiet village in the Downs that has been turning out racehorses for well over a century. Morrison's yard has already sent out 20 winners this season, which tells you this is a stable that knows how to get a horse ready to win. When a yard is operating at that level, a young, unproven horse like Surrey King isn't an embarrassment — it's a work in progress. The question is whether Morrison can find the right opportunity to unlock whatever ability this three-year-old might be hiding.

Surrey King raced just one day ago, so this is very much a horse in the middle of its story rather than at the end of it. Three-year-olds can improve sharply as the season goes on, and plenty of horses that looked ordinary in their first two runs have gone on to win races once they settled into a routine. Whether Surrey King is one of those horses, nobody knows yet — but being in a yard that fires winners regularly is about the best situation a lightly-raced youngster can be in.