Coeur d'Or

The partnership with jockey Chris Hayes is the most interesting thread running through Coeur d'Or's career. Hayes has been in the saddle for 23 of those 30 races and has landed all 4 wins — a win rate of 17%, or roughly 1 in 6 — which tells you that when the pair click, something tends to happen. All 4 wins belong to that combination, which is the kind of stat that makes you wonder whether the horse simply runs better for a familiar pair of hands.

That last win came at The Curragh on 26 August 2023 — now almost three years ago — and the first arrived at Laytown back in September 2022. Laytown is one of racing's genuine oddities, a beach track on the Irish coast where the sea sets the schedule, and winning there is a story in itself. The Curragh, meanwhile, is Ireland's most important flat racing venue, so a winner there carries a bit of weight behind it.

The recent form reads 11-3-3-6-–-14, and those two placed efforts sitting in the middle of that sequence are the glimmer of hope the D.K. Weld yard will be holding onto. Weld is one of Irish racing's most respected trainers, operating out of Curragh, Co Kildare, and has already sent out 21 winners this season alone — this is not a yard that keeps horses around for sentiment. Coeur d'Or raced just one day ago, which means the team clearly believes there is still something to aim at. At 10, with a win at Ireland's most famous track already on the record, that's a career worth following to its finish.