Calmafterthestorm

Since that day at Down Royal, the wheels have come off somewhat. The last six races tell a difficult story: finishing ninth, nineteenth, fourteenth, thirteenth, tenth, and most recently unplaced again. Those are not the figures of a horse building toward something — they are the figures of a horse that has not recaptured whatever clicked on that June afternoon. To put it plainly, Calmafterthestorm has not troubled the judge once in half a year of trying, and the recent numbers suggest the gap between this horse and its rivals has been growing rather than shrinking.

What keeps the situation interesting is the yard behind it. John C McConnell, training out of Stamullen in County Meath, has sent out 38 winners already this season — that is a stable in fine form, with genuine firepower. When a trainer is operating at that kind of volume, you trust that a horse still in training has some reason to be there. McConnell is not a man running horses for the sake of it. The fact that Calmafterthestorm raced as recently as yesterday suggests the team still believes there is a race to be won somewhere, on some day, under the right conditions.

Whether that day comes is another question. A career earning record built on one win and two places from ten races is modest, and the recent run of form makes optimism hard to sustain on paper. But racing has a habit of surprising people, and a horse trained by a yard producing winners at a healthy clip is never entirely without hope. For now, Calmafterthestorm remains what its name perhaps always promised — something still waiting for the weather to clear.