Cerro Blanco

What sets Cerro Blanco apart is how completely it owns Newmarket. The horse has raced there three times and won two of those races, a record that no amount of small sample size can entirely explain away. Some horses simply suit certain tracks — the ground, the shape of the course, the pace of the races — and Cerro Blanco appears to be one of them. This kind of course specialist status can be invaluable over a horse's career, turning one venue into a reliable hunting ground.

Trained by Charlie Appleby at Newmarket, Cerro Blanco is in the hands of a yard that has already sent out 121 winners this season. That kind of win rate suggests a stable running at the top of its game, with the resources and expertise to develop a talented three-year-old properly. For a horse this young and this lightly raced, winning two of three and doing it most recently at a proper racecourse like Newmarket, the trajectory is unmistakably upward.