The five-year-old is trained by Adrian McGuinness out of Lusk in County Dublin, a yard that has been in fine form this season with 45 winners sent out — so the operation clearly knows how to get horses winning. The question for Heart Of Darkness is whether another one can be added to that tally. Recent form makes for tough reading: the last six runs show finishes of 10th, 5th, 11th, a non-completion, 6th, and 11th — with the most recent race coming just yesterday, meaning this is a horse that is being kept very busy right now.
Where things get slightly more interesting is over shorter distances. At 5 to 6½ furlongs — a sprint, essentially — Heart Of Darkness has won 1 from 6 races, which works out at 17%, or roughly 1 in every 6 attempts at that trip. That is a meaningfully better record than its overall numbers suggest, and it points to a horse that at least has a chance when conditions suit. Its most regular partner, jockey Adam Caffrey, has yet to ride it to a win in 7 attempts together, though that may say more about the horse's ceiling than any shortage of effort.
Sometimes a horse's story is simply that racing is hard, and that finding the right race at the right moment is harder still. Heart Of Darkness has managed it once, on a Thursday night at Dundalk 27 months ago. Whether lightning strikes twice remains to be seen — but with a busy yard behind it and a preference for the shorter, sharper trips, it has not run its last interesting race yet.
| Course | Races | Results | Last visited | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dundalk Galloping |
11 | 1 win, 1 second, 1 third, 8 other | 6 Mar | 9.1% |
| Cork Galloping |
3 | 3 other | 11 Sep | 0% |
| The Curragh Galloping |
2 | 2 other | 16 Oct | 0% |
| Fairyhouse Galloping |
2 | 2 other | 1 Jul | 0% |
| Gowran Park Undulating |
2 | 2 other | 1 Jun | 0% |
| Leopardstown Galloping |
1 | 1 other | 12 Apr | 0% |
| Limerick Galloping |
1 | 1 other | 19 Jun | 0% |
| Naas Galloping |
1 | 1 other | 23 Mar | 0% |
| Bellewstown Sharp |
1 | 1 other | 1 Oct | 0% |