Conflated

His record on wet, muddy ground is genuinely striking: 2 wins from just 4 races, meaning he has won half his races when conditions suit him. That kind of figure in elite company is rare, and it suggests that when the ground is soft and the race is run to suit, Conflated becomes a different proposition entirely. Leopardstown, the flagship Dublin track, has also brought out the best in him — 2 wins from 6 races there, a course record that few horses at his level can match. His last win came at Leopardstown in December 2022, now 40 months ago, so that chapter feels like it belongs to a previous version of the horse.

Gordon Elliott, who trains Conflated from his yard in Longwood, Co Meath — a stable that has sent out an extraordinary 209 winners already this season — has spoken openly about where things stand. Elliott has described Conflated as "a very classy horse once upon a time" but acknowledged that at 12, time has caught up with him. The plan now is to route him through hunter chases, a slightly less pressurised sphere of the sport where, as Elliott put it, "he'll have a touch of class." That is both a fond farewell to his days at the top table and a sensible way to keep a proud old horse winning races again. Elliott has also spoken warmly about his courage — after a fall at the last fence at Leopardstown, he said Conflated "definitely didn't deserve that," and after a big run at Cheltenham called him "a horse who ran his heart out."

Jack Kennedy has been in the saddle for 10 of his 29 races, winning once together — the same 1-in-10 ratio as his overall career. Conflated raced just one day ago and remains active, which suggests the team are keeping him ticking over as they plot this new direction. At 12, with a Cheltenham run to his name and a Leopardstown double on his CV, he has earned whatever comes next.