Fallacy

The recent form tells an interesting tale. Read it from left to right and it looks like a horse finding its level — a ninth, a sixth, an eighth — but flip it around and you see something that looks like a horse coming together. The placed run, then the win. That kind of upward curve in a young horse is exactly what trainers are looking for, and Andrew Slattery will be quietly pleased with the timing of it.

Slattery operates out of Thurles in County Tipperary, and his yard has been in serious form this season — 62 winners already, which is the output of a team that knows what it is doing. When a trainer is sending out that volume of winners, it tends to mean the horses in their care are being placed smartly and produced fit. For Fallacy to have broken through at this point in the season, under this kind of management, is an encouraging sign rather than a lucky one.

At three years old, Fallacy is at the age where young horses typically start to mature and show what they are genuinely capable of. One win from five races is a modest return on paper, but the direction of travel matters at this stage, and right now that direction is firmly upward. Whether Gowran Park turns out to be a track it returns to and dominates is a question only time will answer — but given that its first and only win came there, the yard will almost certainly be keeping it in mind.