A Piece Of Heaven

The most recent of them came at Chester just six weeks ago, and by the sound of it, it was a performance full of control rather than luck. Jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle drew a good starting position, got the horse settled early, and found himself in front with enough time to simply hold on rather than scramble. "I was a winner from a long way out," he said — the kind of ride that looks easy and rarely is. Chester is one of the most unusual tracks in Britain, a tight left-handed loop that catches out horses and jockeys alike, which makes a smooth, unhurried win there all the more telling.

Trainer Joseph Patrick O'Brien, based at Owning Hill in County Kilkenny, has had 171 winners this season alone — a yard operating at full power. Earlier in the year, O'Brien flagged that A Piece Of Heaven had suffered a small setback after finishing second in the Irish Cesarewitch, a prestigious long-distance race, and was being aimed at the summer's better staying contests. The Chester win suggests the horse has come back in the form O'Brien was hoping for.

At eight years old, A Piece Of Heaven is not a youngster, but long-distance specialists often improve with age and experience — they learn to settle, to conserve energy, to pick the right moment. This horse raced just yesterday, which means it is very much in the thick of a campaign right now. The combination of a trainer with a red-hot yard, a confident jockey, and a horse that has just posted a smooth win makes A Piece Of Heaven worth watching over the coming weeks.