Duffle Coat

That one win came at Ballinrobe in May 2024, and by the sounds of it, it had been a long time coming. Jockey Sam Ewing, who has ridden Duffle Coat in 12 of its 35 races and won on it just the once, described a horse that had been frustratingly close on multiple occasions before finally breaking through. Ewing waited as long as he dared before asking for the effort, and the fast, dry ground that day helped the horse sustain its run to the line. It had been finishing second repeatedly — and anyone who has watched a horse do that knows how maddening it is.

What makes Duffle Coat more interesting than its record suggests is what jockey Robbie Power said after a run at Cheltenham. Power described being flat out from the off, but noted that the horse is genuinely tenacious — a "little terrier" — with stamina as its main weapon. On soft, wet ground over a long trip, Duffle Coat does not stop. It keeps grinding. That is a specific and useful quality in the right race.

The challenge is that the right race has been hard to find. Trained by Gordon Elliott — whose yard at Longwood in Co Meath has sent out 210 winners this season alone, making it one of the busiest and most successful operations in Irish racing — Duffle Coat has lost its way a little recently. Elliott has been candid about that, and his plan is to try the horse over cross-country courses this season: a discipline that involves jumping banks, ditches, and unusual obstacles rather than conventional fences. It is a format that has suited quirky, experienced horses before, and at nine years old with stamina to burn, Duffle Coat has the profile of a horse that could find a new lease of life there.

The most recent form figures — finishing tenth, ninth, and eleventh in its last three completed races — are not encouraging on paper. But Elliott's yard does not send horses out without a plan, and this one has a new route to try.