Largy Go

Trained by the father-and-son team of Jonjo and A J O'Neill out of Cheltenham, Largy Go is in good hands from day one. The yard has been in sharp form this season, sending out 51 winners, so this is not a quiet operation stumbling onto something — these are experienced handlers who know how to have a horse ready to win first time out. That matters, because getting a horse to perform at its best on debut takes real skill.

It is, of course, just one race. There is a long road ahead, and a single win tells you only so much. But winning on debut is genuinely rare, and doing it at a track like Haydock — a proper, well-regarded venue that draws competitive fields — makes it more meaningful than a first-time win on the quietest card of the year. Largy Go has made the right kind of first impression, and with a yard firing on all cylinders behind it, the early signs are as good as they get.