Hasita

What makes this next appearance genuinely interesting is the gap since we last saw her. Hasita has been off the track for around nine months — a significant absence for any horse, let alone one so young and still learning. Whether that break was planned or enforced, she comes back as something of an unknown quantity. She may have grown into herself physically. She may simply be a different horse to the one who trailed home in those early runs.

The one real reason for optimism is who has her. J P Murtagh's yard in County Kildare has sent out 56 winners already this season — that is a stable firing on all cylinders, and trainers operating at that level do not run horses without believing there is something worth running. If Murtagh has kept faith with Hasita through nine months off the track, there is presumably a reason.