With a stunning victory at Leicester, Roger Varian's Matsuri raised his hand for a possible shot at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.
The Sea The Stars colt broke his maiden at Kempton in November after finishing second on his debut at Salisbury, where he was defeated by a short head.
In the first division of the Filbert Fox EBF Novice Stakes, he was carrying a 6lb penalty. However, he outperformed his competitors, winning by eight lengths under James Doyle.
Although it's unclear how good the form will end up being, it was difficult to ignore his impressive form, and he has entries in both the Irish Classic and the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Varian told Racing TV: “I was very pleased with that, he’s a nice horse and we’ve always rated him, his runs last year were very good. It was frustrating this spring, I just couldn’t get him ready in time for a Derby trial, which is what we wanted to do from the outset, but we had to be patient and he’s won nicely today, so hopefully that will set him up for a good year. He’s had three runs now, Royal Ascot is not that far away and the Irish Derby comes soon after that, so he’s got nice options, he’s a very talented horse and hopefully he’ll end up somewhere nice. First time out at Salisbury, he caught us out a little as he’d been very relaxed at home but he ran a little gassy, so first run of the year today we put the hood on, that’s not to say he needs one but we didn’t want to give him any excuses today.”