Beat The Devil

That January win at Dundalk is the defining chapter of the story so far. Dundalk is Ireland's all-weather track, racing year-round under floodlights, and it's where Beat The Devil found the right conditions at the right moment. In the six months since, the horse hasn't been able to repeat it — the recent run of form reads 7-9-13-5-2-7, which is a sequence that shows flashes of promise (that second place is encouraging) but more often than not ends in mid-table frustration.

The partnership with jockey Jack Kearney is a notable subplot. The two have been paired together six times without a win between them, a record that doesn't yet suggest they've unlocked anything special together. That said, six races is a relatively small sample, and the horse is clearly still racing — it was out just one day ago, so whatever the team is looking for, they haven't stopped searching.

In terms of distance, Beat The Devil shows its best form over a mile and one furlong to a mile and two furlongs, winning 1 of 7 races at those trips — a 14% win rate, or roughly 1 in 7, which is meaningfully better than its overall record and suggests there's a specific type of race that suits this horse. Patrick Magee, the trainer based in Shercock, County Cavan, has sent out 8 winners this season, so the yard is clearly capable of getting horses to the line first. The question is whether Beat The Devil can find its way back to that winner's spot for the first time since January.