Game And Glory

The first win came at Tramore in October 2022, and the second at Ballinrobe in April 2024 — a gap of about 18 months between victories, which gives you a sense of the patience required from everyone involved. That Ballinrobe win is now 25 months in the rear-view mirror, and the last six races have produced nothing better than a fourth place, with five finishes outside the placings altogether. The form at the moment is quiet, to put it charitably.

What makes the jockey partnership with P J O'Hanlon worth noting is that it has been given every chance to click — 12 races together and still no win between them. That is not an indictment of either horse or rider, but it does suggest the combination has not yet found its moment. With a horse that wins as infrequently as this one, those moments are rare and timing matters.

Behind the scenes, trainer P J Rothwell has had a productive season from his yard in Tinahely, County Wicklow, sending out 35 winners. That is a stable in decent form, which means Game And Glory is not sitting in a struggling operation waiting for the tide to turn — the horses around it are winning. The fact that this particular one has not is simply the reality of where it sits in the pecking order right now.

Raced just one day ago and still active at 10, Game And Glory is clearly a tough and durable animal. Horses that rack up 44 races are not fragile. Thirteen places alongside those two wins also show it has been competitive far more often than the win record alone would suggest — placing in nearly 1 in every 3 races is a horse that runs honest. Whether another win is coming is genuinely hard to say, but this is a horse that will keep giving the yard every reason to keep trying.