Ballynoe Boy

What stands out is how well he performs on normal, standard ground. Give him a racecourse that is neither waterlogged nor bone-hard, and his record jumps to three wins from eight races (a 38% win rate) — that is a meaningful edge, the kind of thing a trainer watches for when planning entries. Richards, whose yard has already sent out 39 winners this season, clearly knows how to get the best from him. Yet there is a curious blind spot in his record: he has never won in a top-level Class 1 or 2 race, going winless from four attempts at that level. Ballynoe Boy appears to be a horse who excels when the competition is less fierce.

One oddity worth noting: his most frequent jockey, Danny McMenamin, has ridden him six times without a win. The last three victories have come with different riders, which suggests that connection between horse and jockey has room for improvement — or that someone else simply suits him better. With three wins from his last six races and momentum clearly with him, Ballynoe Boy looks like a horse heading in the right direction. Whether he can climb higher remains to be seen.