WHEN Aidan O’Brien speaks at his annual early-season press morning, it usually tends to be well worth paying close attention. Back at the same equivalent press event in 2022, when asked for unraced two-year-olds to follow, O’Brien immediately put forward the No Nay Never colt that would later race as Little Big Bear - crowned Europe’s champion juvenile that year after achieving a rating of 124.

The second horse he mentioned that morning? It turned out to be the season’s third top-rated juvenile filly in Europe, Royal Ascot and Breeders’ Cup heroine Meditate. The next pair he mentioned either won two-year-old maidens or earned blacktype without scaling immense heights, but the final two he referred to as “making it into our A grade when they’ve been working” were high class indeed.