What we do know is that Hearts To Heaven comes from a decent bloodline. The father, Dragon Dancer, was a high-class performer on the track, and the mother's side carries the influence of Tikkanen, a horse with a solid pedigree background. Whether that breeding translates into ability on the track is the whole point of today.
The trainer is Joe Tickle, who operates out of Stoodleigh in Devon — not exactly the most glamorous postcode in British racing, but clearly a yard that knows what it is doing. Twenty winners already this season is a genuinely impressive return for a smaller operation, and it suggests that when Tickle sends a horse out, it is worth paying attention. A debut runner from a yard in that kind of form is always interesting — the team would not be running Hearts To Heaven today unless they believed there was something worth seeing.