ENDLESS Drama put up a high-class performance to finish third in the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury last Saturday, given that it was his first run since he finished second behind Gleneagles in the Irish 2000 Guineas on this day last year.

Ger Lyons’ horse raced a little more keenly than ideal through the early stages of the race, but that was understandable, given that he hadn’t raced in over a year. He moved into the race nicely on the far side for Colin Keane and, while he could not match Belardo’s finishing kick, he kept on well all the way to the line to take third place, just over a length behind the winner.

The Lockinge is often a good race for seasonal debutants, seven of the previous 10 winners were winning on their seasonal return, but Endless Drama was off for almost a year and he still did best of the three horses - Limato and Kodi Bear were the other two, and both were shorter in the betting - who were racing for the first time in 2016 on Saturday.

It is interesting that the trainer said afterwards that Endless Drama would get a mile and a quarter and that opens up options for the son of Lope De Vega. He holds an entry in both the Queen Anne Stakes over a mile and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes over a mile and a quarter at Royal Ascot, but it seemed as if his trainer was favouring the shorter race, before giving his horse a mid-season break and bringing him back for the Irish Champion Stakes.

He is a lightly-raced, strapping individual who has bundles of potential for further progress.

Lyons said before Saturday’s race that, if Endless Drama wasn’t a Group 1 horse, he didn’t have one. He probably is, he probably does.