Far From Dandy

What makes this horse interesting is that it has a genuine track where it genuinely excels. Dundalk is home territory: two wins from four races there, a 50 per cent win rate that stands out sharply against the overall record. That kind of course specialist form suggests there is something about the Dundalk setup — the surface, the layout, or simply the trainer's ability to get the horse ready for that particular place — that brings out the best in it. Away from Dundalk, the picture becomes murkier. The horse also shows a preference for normal ground conditions, winning two of its four races on standard going, but the more recent form simply has not materialised into results.

Jockey Colin Keane, who rides the horse most often, has not yet found the key: they have raced together five times with zero wins between them. Stephen Thorne, the Dublin-based trainer, is doing well this season with 24 winners from the yard, but Far From Dandy remains the one that has not quite put it together lately. At 4 years old, the horse still has time to return to winning ways, but the seven-month drought since Dundalk suggests the consistency that would make a real racehorse out of it is still missing.