Hob's Angel

The real puzzle is what has happened since that solitary win last May. Five months have now passed without another victory, and the form in the last six races reads like a long goodbye: ninth, fourth, sixth, third, fifth, and most recently ninth again just yesterday. There are glimpses of competitiveness in there—that third and fourth—but nothing you could call momentum. James M Barcoe's yard at Gowran has had a reasonable season with seven winners, but Hob's Angel is not contributing to that tally.

Interestingly, the horse's most frequent partner in the saddle is Kieran Callaghan, though that pairing has yet to produce a winner from seven attempts together. For a horse that has managed only one win in its entire career, it is hard to build much of a case for better days ahead. At this age and with this record, Hob's Angel is the sort of horse that has found its level—honest enough to run creditably most days, but not quite good enough to win with any regularity. It remains active, racing just yesterday, so there is clearly faith somewhere that another win might come. But the evidence suggests that first May victory at Clonmel was the kind of moment that does not come around twice.