'Each time I came back to see him, I sort of liked him a bit more'

Native Trail's physical substance has been remarked upon as Godolphin's colt developed into this season's champion two-year-old elect.

It was an aspect that the man who found him first, Kildaragh Stud's Peter Kavanagh, noticed when he was only ten months old, taking a chance in buying the unbeaten Dewhurst and National Stakes winner for €50,000 at Arqana's December Breeding Stock Sale.

"We buy foals to pinhook as yearlings and we’re always on the lookout for fillies and mares," recalls Kavanagh.