Ballyadam

De Bromhead is having a strong season — 107 winners sent out already — and Ballyadam has contributed to that momentum this week, winning at Listowel on 31 May 2026. That is the horse's third career win, and given it came as an eleven-year-old, it says something about the level of care and management that has kept it competitive. The key, according to racing manager Chris Richardson of Cheveley Park Stud, is keeping Ballyadam fresh. The team does not over-race it, and the results speak for themselves: recent form of 1-2-4-3-6-3 shows a horse that is very much in the thick of things, not winding down.

Rachael Blackmore, one of the most celebrated jockeys in the sport, has ridden Ballyadam in 13 of its races, winning 2 of them — a win rate of roughly 1 in every 6 rides together. That is a partnership built on familiarity, and it shows in how the horse performs. But it is Cheltenham where Ballyadam truly comes alive. Despite not yet breaking through for a win at the top level — 0 from 6 in Class 1 races, the very best races in the sport — it has run with enormous credit, including a third-place finish in the Coral Cup that had De Bromhead openly delighted. "That was a savage run," was his assessment after one Cheltenham appearance, and he has spoken about potentially returning to the Coral Cup as a future target.

The honest truth is that Ballyadam has not quite cracked the top tier, and the handicapper — the official who assigns weights to try to even out a race — has made life difficult by loading it with extra weight in recognition of its consistency. But a horse that its own trainer calls "so consistent and turns up every day," that its racing manager calls "a star in his own right," and that is still winning races at eleven years old, deserves every bit of that affection.