Lastbutnotleased

The horse is by Harzand, a sire whose offspring have made their mark on the track, and out of an Oscar mare. Those family lines give a rough idea of what the horse might be built for, though breeding only ever offers clues, not answers. What it cannot tell you is how a horse will handle the noise of a crowd, the bunching of a field or the moment a jockey asks for more speed.

Much of the early interest will come from the trainer. Nicky Henderson, based at Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, runs one of the best-known yards in British racing, and his team has sent out 90 winners so far this season. That is a yard firing on all cylinders. Horses who arrive at a stable like that have been given every chance to show what they can do, and when a horse from a yard in form makes its debut, it is natural to wonder whether the trainer knows something the rest of us do not yet.

For now, though, the honest position is that Lastbutnotleased is a complete unknown. There are no times to compare, no rivals to measure it against and no ground conditions it has yet handled. The first run will tell us far more than any amount of guesswork beforehand, and that is the moment worth waiting for.