Gerri Colombe

The headline story is Aintree. Winning a top-level race at one of the most famous tracks in the world is an achievement in itself. Winning two of them, in back-to-back years on almost exactly the same date in April 2023 and April 2024, is the kind of thing that makes people sit up and take notice. Add a third top-level win at Sandown in February 2023 and you have a horse that has won 3 from 5 of its races at the highest level in Britain — 60%, for a horse competing against the very best. That is not a fluke.

But the most striking number belongs to Down Royal, a track in Northern Ireland that Gerri Colombe has quietly made its own. Three wins from four races there, including a win just last week on 17 March 2026, tells you this horse does not just travel well — it travels and delivers. Course specialists exist in racing, but a 75% record at any track is something else entirely.

Behind the scenes, two names matter. Gordon Elliott trains out of Longwood in County Meath, and his yard has sent out 209 winners already this season — that is an operation firing at full force, not one sending horses out to make up the numbers. When Elliott runs a horse in a top-level race, it tends to mean something. Jockey Jack Kennedy has been the regular partner, winning 5 of the 9 races they have ridden together, which works out at well over half. That kind of partnership — rider knowing the horse, horse knowing the rider — is worth more than it looks on paper.

Recent form shows a third place, two quiet runs, then a second and a win. The comeback is there. At ten years old, with a top-level record that most horses never approach, Gerri Colombe is still turning up and competing at the sharp end. That alone deserves respect.