What really catches the eye, though, is the stable. Willie Mullins is one of the most decorated trainers in the sport, and his yard at Muine Bheag in Co Carlow has been in extraordinary form — 230 winners already this season. To put that in perspective, most trainers would consider 30 or 40 winners a season a genuine achievement. When a horse walks out of that operation for the first time, it arrives with serious credentials behind it, even if it has none of its own yet.
At four years old, Karak De Faust is stepping onto a racecourse for the first time slightly later than some, but that is not unusual for horses from big yards who take their time to develop. The next chapter starts here.