IN June 2016, Prince Of Lir lined up for Royal Ascot’s Group 2 Norfolk Stakes having had one previous start. That was in a five-furlong Beverley maiden less than three weeks before and he had won it in promising style on fast ground.

He also won at Ascot, by a narrower margin than on his debut and this time with the ground riding soft, beating a colt who would go on to win one of the autumn’s top juvenile sprints. That rival was The Last Lion, winner of the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.