Andab

That promise showed brightest last October at Dundalk, where he delivered a decisive win that jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle said revealed real class. The horse quickened cleanly when asked and demonstrated the kind of acceleration that separates the merely decent from the genuinely talented. McMonagle, who rides him most often, has won two of six races together — a 33% partnership — which is markedly better than Andab's overall record and hints at a rapport that may yet count for something. Since that Dundalk win eleven months ago, however, Andab has been unable to recapture that form, finishing unplaced or third or second across his last six outings. The recent pattern — sixth, fifth, seventh, third, second, third — shows him fighting but not quite finding his way home.

Trainer Joseph Patrick O'Brien, who oversees a yard sending out winners at a prolific rate this season, has not given up on him. Speaking before his last couple of races, O'Brien noted that Andab ran with real promise in Qatar and again at Newcastle, unlucky not to complete the job, and suggested a Listed-level race at the Curragh in early May might be his next target. The trainer sees a horse with something left to prove, not one past it. At three years old, that is fair. McMonagle's early observations after that debut win hinted at even bigger distances to come — a mile in time, he reckoned — suggesting that Andab may yet need to find the right race and the right conditions to show what he is really capable of.