Aix La Chapelle

What adds real weight to that first impression is who is doing the training. Aix La Chapelle is part of the operation run by A P O'Brien out of Cashel in County Tipperary — one of the most powerful yards in world racing. This season alone, that team has already sent out 144 winners. To put that in perspective, most trainers would consider 20 or 30 winners a very good year. When a horse comes out of that yard and wins first time, it tends to mean the team liked what they saw at home long before the rest of us got a look.

There is nothing else to go on yet — no pattern to analyse, no tough losses to explain away, no questions about whether it handles wet ground or a big occasion. It is a blank page with one very encouraging first line. Whether Aix La Chapelle builds on this debut and develops into something serious over the coming months is the question worth watching.