Dawn Flame

The breakthrough arrived at Dundalk on 23 January 2026, and it's worth paying attention to the distance: Dawn Flame has won 1 of 5 races over a mile and one or two furlongs, which translates to a 20% win rate at that trip — meaning the horse wins 1 in every 5 races at that range. That is a genuinely meaningful number. Compare it to the overall record and it tells you something clear: Dawn Flame isn't a horse that struggles across the board, it's a horse that has a preferred range and performs significantly better when conditions suit. That distinction matters when you're trying to work out what to expect next.

The recent run of form, however, demands honesty. The last six results read 9th, 12th, 15th, 8th, 3rd, 5th — working backwards from the most recent — and that early sequence of double-digit finishes represents a difficult spell. A 15th and a 12th in the same run of races suggests the horse was finding things genuinely tough. The brighter finishes of late — a third and then a fifth — are at least pointing in the right direction, and Dawn Flame raced just one day ago, so this is a horse very much in the thick of its season.

Paul W Flynn, who trains Dawn Flame out of Colehill in Co Longford, has had a productive season with 22 winners sent out. A yard operating at that level isn't making up the numbers, and the fact that Flynn keeps running Dawn Flame regularly suggests there's belief that the right opportunity is still out there. The win at Dundalk six months ago is the clearest evidence of what this horse can do — and the trick now is finding the conditions that bring it back to that level.