Chou Chou

Both of those wins have come at a distance of around a mile and a furlong to a mile and two furlongs, where Chou Chou has won 2 from 14 races — that is 14%, or roughly 1 in every 7, which is a meaningfully better record than the overall numbers suggest. It tells you something useful: get Chou Chou to the right trip and the picture changes considerably. The rest of the time, racing at distances that do not suit, the results reflect it.

Jockey Killian Leonard has been the regular partner, riding Chou Chou in 6 of those races and winning once — that is about 1 in 6 together, or 17%, which is actually ahead of the horse's overall average. The most recent win came at Clonmel on 11 September 2025, nine months ago now, and the recent form — finishing out of the places in the last five runs before that — tells a story of a horse that has been finding things hard. The sequence reads seventh, ninth, ninth, fourteenth, and then a blank, which is not encouraging.

What keeps the interest alive is that Chou Chou raced just one day ago, meaning the yard clearly believes there is more to come. O'Connell has sent out 4 winners this season, which suggests a stable in decent working order. The first career win arrived at Tipperary as recently as July 2025, so this is a horse that only found its feet as a five-year-old — late to the party, but at least it arrived. Whether it can recapture the Clonmel form is the question worth watching.