Dusky Days

Moffatt, who has sent out 11 winners from his Cartmel base this season alone, has clearly found the formula with this one. The key appears to be the ground. On normal conditions, Dusky Days has won 2 from 15 races — a 13% win rate, or roughly 1 in every 7 to 8 tries. That might not sound spectacular, but for a horse that has only won twice in its life, finding those two wins on the same type of ground is not a coincidence. It is a preference, and a trainer worth his salt will keep exploiting it.

The most recent win came at Cartmel on 19 July 2025, which feels fitting given that Moffatt's yard is practically in the shadow of that track. Before that, the first career win came at Stratford-on-Avon in May 2024 — so this is a horse that has taken time to find its feet, but has been improving at precisely the point when many horses this age start to wind down. Jockey Gavin Sheehan has been along for much of the journey, riding in 12 of the 24 races together and picking up that single win — a partnership that has had its patient moments but seems to be clicking now. The bulk of Dusky Days' racing has come at Class 5 level, the bread-and-butter tier of jump racing, and at that level the horse has won 2 from 15 — again, 1 in every 7 or 8 races. Unspectacular in isolation, but perfectly respectable for a nine-year-old still competing regularly. Dusky Days is not a horse that will make headlines, but right now it is a horse that is genuinely in form — and in racing, that is what matters most.