Comanche Brave

The recent form tells the most compelling story. Over the last six races, Comanche Brave has won three of them, with the sequence reading 1-7-1-3-3-1 from most recent back. That single blip — a seventh-place finish sandwiched between two wins — looks more like a one-off than a pattern. The rest of the form is the kind that makes trainers sleep well at night. Most recently, the horse won at Newmarket just this week, which means it arrives here in the form of its life.

Conditions matter with this horse, and the numbers are striking. On fast, dry ground, Comanche Brave has won 2 from 4 races — a 50% win rate, meaning it wins every other time out when the ground is in its favour. That is a remarkable return. Similarly, over distances between five and six-and-a-half furlongs, it has won 3 from 5 races, which is 60% — three wins from five attempts at its preferred trip. When Comanche Brave gets the ground it wants and the distance it wants, backing against it starts to feel brave in the wrong way.

The horse is trained by Donnacha Aidan O'Brien at Ballyroe in County Tipperary, a yard that has sent out 31 winners already this season — a operation clearly in fine fettle. Gavin Ryan is the regular partner in the saddle, and together they have won 2 from 7 races, a win rate of just under 1 in 3. It is a partnership with a track record, even if there is still room to grow.

Comanche Brave had its first career win at Cork in September 2024, and in less than two years has developed into a horse that wins at one of Britain's most prestigious tracks. The progression is real, the form is current, and the horse raced just yesterday. Whatever comes next, this is not a horse coasting — it is one building towards something.