What I am looking forward to after lockdown: seeing the exciting two-year-olds

A trainer and I stood in the centre of his yard at the start of last month gazing at a horse as she walked by, blissfully unaware, or perhaps unappreciative, of the potential cataclysm that was coming racing's way.

We stared appreciatively at this horse, a striking unraced two-year-old filly, and mused about what may lay ahead for her. "You can just imagine her charging up the hill at the July course", or words to that effect, were offered enthusiastically by the trainer. He was right, I could imagine it.

And that's what two-year-olds, like no other type of horse that is raced, offer; excitement and anticipation, disappointment and befuddlement, but the chance to dream and ponder "what if".

So, that is what I look forward to most when racing finally returns, the chance to see two-year-olds in action and the boundless possibilities almost each and every race for such horses presents through the year.

Newmarket July course: often anticipation before two-year-old racesCredit: Edward Whitaker

That is the beauty with juveniles. Yes, you are most likely to see a very talented horse running at the July course in the summer or at Newbury or York, the prize-money, prestige, programmes and racing surfaces at tracks such as these often make them the chosen places for the regally-bred and expensively-bought youngsters.

However, brilliance is not the preserved of these courses. Take, for example, a seemingly run-of-the-mill novice contest staged on a Friday evening at Wolverhampton in May last year.

That race was won by none other than Pinatubo, who didn't even start favourite but would end the year unbeaten and ranked among the best juveniles we have ever seen in Europe. Who could have predicted such a sequence of events that morning?

The excitement that fizzes around racecourses before the appearance of a well-touted two-year-old, particularly an unraced one, is a delight.

I have experienced this at the aforementioned July course more than any other racecourse. That tangible anticipation about what may happen was present before Motivator, winner of the following year's Derby, scored for the first time there, and it was the same when Rainbow View blew away her opposition on debut as well (she really was a wonderfully talented juvenile).

Frankel: made his debut at the July Course in NewmarketCredit: Edward Whitaker

However, it was never more fevered than before an unraced Galileo colt in the Juddmonte silks stepped on to the racecourse for the first time on a Friday evening when rain lashed down from the sky in torrents.

Of course, you don't need me to tell you the horse in question was Frankel, starting out on his road to immortality. A two-year-old with countless potential whose trainer, the late Sir Henry Cecil, after the race stood sheltering from the rain, head characteristically tilted to one side as he absorbed what he had seen, pondering what he might do next as those gathered around him waited for his customary "what do you think?".

From those exciting debuts, to the stakes races, nursery debutants and sales contests, where horses bought from relative peanuts can provide those who have invested their hopes and dreams with returns they could scarcely have imagined a matter of months before, two-year-old racing offers so much to look forward to.

So, I hope to be at the July course later this summer with the sun warming my shoulders, watching the filly I let my mind's eye picture thundering across the turf do her thing. Who knows where it may lead?

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