Kikkuli could be Juddmonte’s “dark horse for the year” as he prepares for the early stages of his three-year-old season.

A half-brother to the mighty Frankel and by the owners’ Classic-winning sire Kingman, he is the last foal out of Kind and is fittingly trained at Beckhampton by Harry Charlton, the training facility from which Kind blitzed her way to two Listed victories during her on-track career.

With such a regal bloodline, there was plenty of excitement surrounding the colt’s Newmarket debut towards the end of last season, where Kikkuli showed plenty of promise to keep on for second behind subsequent Listed scorer Zoum Zoum.

The third from that seven-furlong maiden, Balmacara, has recently given the form a timely boost and connections are hopeful there is plenty of untapped potential still to be seen from Kikkuli this term.

“Harry is happy with the horse and feels like the horse has done well from two to three, he has got a lot stronger and is training nicely,” said Juddmonte’s European racing manager Barry Mahon.

“His debut is good form and I think Kikkuli was ready for a day out that day. Harry had said he was far from the finished article.

“It’s good form and we would like to think there could be some improvement to come, so he could be a dark horse for the year.”

Kikkuli is set to stick to calmer waters for the time being with the goal of shedding his maiden status in the early stages of the campaign, while the hope from his team is that he could blossom into a big-race contender by the time Royal Ascot arrives later in the summer.

“We will probably start off low key with him and go for a maiden or a novice and then just see how we go,” continued Mahon.

“If he is going to make into good horse, then it will be probably from Royal Ascot time onwards he will be stepping into those good races.

“But if we can get a maiden or a novice done in the next six weeks or so it would be great and we can just move up slowly from there.”