THIS is the time of season to start looking for winners from the griffin ranks that should be able to score next time round, preferably the earlier the better.
First-season training sensation Tony Cruz's Leisure Island shaped very favourably last weekend and yesterday it was the turn of the stable's Running Cue to enter the notebook.
The son of Quest For Fame, an International Sale purchase, kept on strongly to snatch third under Alan Munro in the second griffin contest won by Roaring Star, and he should have learned plenty from the experience.
Munro was at once perservering on this two-year-old, thus teaching him how to knuckle down and race, yet he wasn't overly hard on him so he should have also enjoyed the experience.
The two things point to plenty more to come from Running Cue when he is moved up in distance from yesterday's 1,200 metres to around a mile.
He'll then get even farther as he's by the English Derby winner Quest For Fame out of a Sir Tristram mare.