Earthsong

That one win came at Gowran Park on 20 May, and it matters more than the bare number suggests. Gowran is a tight, turning track in County Kilkenny that suits certain horses down to the ground, and getting off the mark there gives the team something real to build on. The fact that her recent form reads 8-1-5-4-9-3 — a win sandwiched between some moderate finishes — tells you this is a horse still finding her feet, capable of a big run one day and a quiet one the next.

She is trained by W McCreery out of Rathbride in Co Kildare, a yard that has sent out 22 winners already this season. That is the kind of output that tells you the stable knows how to get horses ready to win, and a four-year-old with a first career victory just five weeks ago is very much at the stage where things can click into place quickly. Having raced just one day ago, she is clearly being kept busy, which suggests the team see her as a horse that benefits from racing regularly rather than being kept fresh between long gaps.

At four, Earthsong is at the age where most horses start to settle into what they are and what they need. She has shown she can win, she has shown she can place, and she is in the hands of a trainer who is having a productive season. The next few months will tell us whether that Gowran victory was a turning point or just a good day.