John Harrison

What gives the yard — sorry, what gives the yard real cause for optimism is who is doing the training. Alan King, based at Wroughton in Wiltshire, has sent out 57 winners already this season. That's a serious operation. King has spent decades developing young horses exactly like this one, and a trainer firing at that kind of volume tends to know when a horse is on the cusp of breaking through versus when it simply isn't up to it. The fact that John Harrison keeps getting entered and keeps running suggests the team believe there's a win in there somewhere.

At five races old and only three years of age, this horse is still early in its career. Many horses take time to learn the job — to settle, to find their rhythm, to put it all together on the right day. Two places from five races at 0 wins is a modest return on paper, but it's also the profile of a horse that hasn't disgraced itself and is trained by someone with the experience to get the best out of it. The next few races will be telling.