There’s something uniquely absorbing in following a rags to riches story. Sporting fields provide a regular platform for such events. In US racing, for all its ills, you will find it more regularly. Cheap horses, relatively unknown trainers.

The tale of the 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome is one of the best of recent years. He was product of an $8,000 mare and stallion whose fee reportedly cost $2,000.