Esna

The Sandown win is worth noting. It is a track that tends to sort horses out — a stiff finish that exposes anything that is not quite genuine or not quite fit — so winning there first time out of the gate as a winner is a decent marker. The fact that Esna has now been off the track for around six months means there are questions to answer on return, as there always are after a long break, but the underlying form gives reason to think this is a horse worth following once she gets back into her rhythm.

Brian Meehan trains out of Manton in Wiltshire, a yard that has sent out 13 winners already this season. That is a stable in decent form, and a horse coming back from a break with a trainer firing is in about as good a position as you can hope for. With only two races on the clock, Esna is still very much an unknown quantity — but an intriguing one.