Antoine De Paris

What that August win does tell you is that this horse is capable. Sligo is a tight, quirky little track in the west of Ireland that rewards horses who are genuinely switched on and willing, and winning there is not nothing. The question is whether that day was a peak or a pointer.

The most encouraging thing in the numbers is what happens when Antoine De Paris is asked to travel a proper distance. Over a mile and three or four furlongs — roughly a lap and a half of a park — the record reads 1 win from 4 races, which is 25%. That is a completely different picture to the overall career figures, and it suggests the horse has a type of race that genuinely suits. Getting that right combination of trip and track again is the puzzle the team at Draperstown will be trying to solve.

Trainer Noel C Kelly has sent out 14 winners this season from his yard in Co. Derry, which tells you this is not a place that sends horses out just to make up the numbers. Regular rider Robert Whearty has not yet managed to find the winning formula in five attempts together — 0 from 5 — though that is as much a reflection of where Antoine De Paris is in form as anything else. The horse raced just a day ago and is clearly being kept busy, which at least shows the yard believes there is a race to be won somewhere. They just need to find it.