Baltinglass Hill

What stands out is the distance at which Baltinglass Hill performs. Over middle-to-long trips — races of one mile six furlongs to two miles — the horse has won 1 of 3 attempts (33%). That is a genuinely encouraging win rate, and it suggests the horse knows its game when given the right conditions. Everything else points to a stayer that prefers to stretch out. The problem is consistency. In its last six races, Baltinglass Hill has not finished in the frame once, logging three sevenths and three unplaced efforts. It is not running badly enough to retire, but it is not running well enough to win.

Tiernan Power Roche is the horse's regular rider — twelve races together, and none have brought a victory. P J Rothwell's yard at Tinahely, in County Wicklow, is having a decent season with thirty-five winners overall, so the support is there. But for Baltinglass Hill, the wins have simply dried up. A horse with one win from thirty-five races is asking a question about where it belongs, and at nine years old, the answer may already be clear. What made that single victory at Roscommon so special was that it proved the horse could do it. Everything since then has been an attempt to prove it again.