Carrigans Grove

Trained by Patrick J Flynn out of Carrick-On-Suir in County Waterford, Carrigans Grove has been part of a yard in decent form — eight winners sent out this season alone. The first career win came at Dundalk on 11 April 2025, and the best followed at The Curragh on 30 August 2025, one of Ireland's most prestigious tracks. Winning at The Curragh matters. It is not a place that hands out victories to ordinary horses, so even one success there says something about what Carrigans Grove can do on its best day.

The difficulty is that those best days have become harder to find. The last win was now ten months ago, and the most recent six races have returned a 7th, an 18th, a 10th, a 4th, a non-completion, and a 10th — a rough stretch by any measure. The fourth-place finish hints at a horse still capable of competing, but the two 10th places and an 18th suggest something is not clicking the way it once did. Jockey Robyn Donaghue-Leahy, the most regular partner, has won just once from nine rides together — roughly 1 in every 9 times they have teamed up — which reflects the horse's wider run of form rather than any single failing.

Carrigans Grove raced just one day ago, so this is an active story. Horses do come back from lean spells, and three wins from 20 races with nine other placed finishes is not the record of a horse without ability. Whether Flynn can unlock another performance to match that August day at The Curragh remains to be seen, but the fact that Carrigans Grove keeps appearing in the entries — keeps being trained, kept fit, kept competing — suggests the team around it still believes there is a race to be won.