Dinoland

The two wins are what give the story its shape. The first came at Cartmel in July 2024, a small but characterful track in the Lake District. The second followed just six weeks later at Down Royal in Northern Ireland in August 2024 — a rare moment when a horse finds form and sustains it, even briefly. That back-to-back sequence across two countries is the kind of thing that makes a trainer sit up. W R Crawford, based in Craigavon, County Armagh, clearly had Dinoland hitting a sweet spot last summer.

Since then, though, it's been a long wait. That Down Royal win was 20 months ago, and the last six runs have read as four blanks sandwiched between a second place and the most recent outing — which came just one day ago. The horse is still racing, still active, which matters. The recent form hasn't been flashy but the second place shows it hasn't completely gone to sleep either.

One thing the numbers do confirm: Dinoland is best suited to normal ground conditions, where it has won 2 of its 9 races — roughly 1 in every 4.5 runs on a standard surface. That's a meaningful difference from its overall record and suggests the team will be keeping a close eye on conditions when planning the next entry.

The partnership with jockey Ben Harvey is worth noting, though not entirely for flattering reasons. Seven races together, no wins. That's not necessarily damning — plenty of factors go into a result — but it does mean the combination is still looking for its first moment together. With Crawford's yard having sent out just one winner so far this season, Dinoland carrying any kind of momentum into its next race would be genuinely useful for everyone involved.