Ambishio

What gives the team genuine grounds for optimism is who is doing the training. Michael Appleby, based at Oakham in Rutland, has sent out 71 winners already this season — a remarkable volume that marks him out as one of the busiest and most effective yards in the country. Appleby specialises in getting the best out of exactly this kind of horse: young, still developing, not yet consistent, but capable of producing something on the right day. When a trainer of that calibre keeps running a horse, it usually means they can see something worth persisting with.

Ambishio raced just yesterday, so fitness is not a question. The more interesting question is whether a course like Southwell — where the only win so far has come — might hold the key again. Some horses simply take to a particular track and return to it transformed. At twelve races into a career, patterns are only just beginning to emerge, and for a three-year-old trained by a yard that wins at this volume, the story is far from written.