Genuine Jim

His two wins tell a decent story on their own. The first came at The Curragh in October 2024, which is Ireland's most prestigious flat track — not a bad place to get off the mark. The second arrived at Cork in April 2025, suggesting he is capable of performing at different venues when things fall right. Between those two wins, and since, he has been a horse who runs well enough without quite getting his nose in front. His last six races read as a blank, then a third, two seconds, a nineteenth and a seventh — the two second-place finishes in that run will have been particularly frustrating for the team, close enough to smell it but not close enough to bank it.

He has not won now in 14 months, and that blank run of six races is the kind of sequence that tests a yard's patience. R P Burns trains him out of Collinstown in County Westmeath, a yard that has sent out five winners this season, so they clearly know how to find a race when the moment is right. The question is whether Genuine Jim can find his moment again.

The most interesting detail in his record is what happens when Nicola Burns takes the ride. In ten races together, she has partnered him to both of his career wins — a win rate of 1 in every 5, or 20%, which is double his overall average. That is not a coincidence. Something about that partnership clicks, and when you see her name in the saddle, it is worth paying attention. He raced just yesterday and remains an active runner, so another chance is not far away. Whether he can recapture the form that earned those two wins remains the open question, but with the right jockey and a yard still firing, it would be unwise to write him off entirely.