April Mist

Behind April Mist is the yard of G M Lyons, based at Dunsany in County Meath, and this is not a small operation having a quiet year. Lyons has sent out 43 winners already this season — a number that places the yard firmly among the most productive in Ireland right now. When a trainer of that calibre keeps a young horse active, it usually means they like what they see in the mornings. April Mist's form reads 1-2 in the most recent order, meaning a win followed by a runner-up finish — or perhaps the other way around depending on how the season unfolds — but either way, there have been no disasters, no wasted runs, just a horse learning its trade and doing it well.

At two years old, April Mist is still very much at the beginning of the story. A career record of one win and two places from just two races is about as clean a start as you can ask for, and Bellewstown — a charming, rural Irish track with a festival atmosphere — is where that first chapter was written. What happens next is genuinely open. But with a sharp early record, a leading trainer sending them out regularly, and youth very much on their side, April Mist is exactly the kind of horse worth paying attention to before everyone else does.