JONQUIL can refer to both a flower (a type of daffodil) and a colour, a shade of yellow. It is more significantly, for our purposes, the name of Juddmonte’s highly-rated three-year-old son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal), and the stakes-placed, three-time winner Jovial, a daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

With antecedents like that, how could he be anything but a star? Trained last season by the now retired Sir Michael Stoute, Jonquil was badly hampered on his debut at Sandown in a seven-furlong maiden, but Ryan Moore got him balanced again and up to win. Just two weeks later, he was a disappointing fifth of six in a listed race after dwelling at the start, and perhaps he was feeling the effects of his troubled debut. A planned third outing was abandoned.