Ferdia

What makes that Tramore win the defining moment of Ferdia's career is simply that nothing has matched it since. Forty-six months have passed, 37 of those 38 races have ended without a winner's enclosure visit, and recent form offers little encouragement — the last six runs include two non-completions and a best finish of sixth. The partnership with jockey Philip Donovan has produced 14 races together and zero wins, which at this point feels less like bad luck and more like a reflection of where Ferdia sits in the pecking order.

Trainer John Patrick Ryan operates out of Templemore in County Tipperary and has had a productive season with 21 winners sent out from the yard — so the stable clearly knows how to get horses to win. Ferdia, raced just yesterday and still active, simply hasn't been one of them. At 10 years old, with form figures that have drifted quietly backwards, the honest assessment is that Ferdia is a horse who fills out a field, gives the yard a run for their money in the placing prizes, and keeps showing up. In racing, that counts for something — just not very much on the scoresheet.