Duke Of Leggagh

What makes Duke Of Leggagh genuinely interesting is its clear preference for very wet and muddy ground. On those conditions, it wins roughly one in every three races, compared to its overall win rate of just one in every eight. That is a massive gap, and it tells you everything: this is a horse that thrives when the going gets tough. At Galway in October 2022, where conditions were almost certainly soft or heavy, it recorded its first career win, and it has returned to wet-ground races ever since when it has managed to get its head in front. For a trainer like Michael Mulvany, whose Kells yard has been sending out winners regularly this season, Duke Of Leggagh is exactly the sort of horse that needs to be aimed at the right track on the right day — wait for the rain, find a race on muddy ground, and suddenly a horse that looks ordinary in the statistics becomes genuinely competitive.

Curiously, Wesley Joyce, the jockey who rides Duke Of Leggagh most often, has yet to record a win aboard the horse from thirteen races together. That has not stopped the yard from keeping him in the saddle, which suggests either faith that a win is coming, or that the pairing simply suits the horse's racing pattern. Either way, Duke Of Leggagh remains an active horse at six years old, and one that will always attract attention when rain is forecast.