La Fogata

The highlight so far came at Punchestown in September 2025, when La Fogata got off the mark for the first time. It has been roughly five months since that day, and she has not raced since, so whoever she faces next will be meeting a horse returning from a break and carrying a question mark about sharpness. That said, her recent form before the win showed a couple of fourth-place finishes followed by that breakthrough, which suggests she had been building towards it rather than stumbling into it.

She is trained by Donnacha Aidan O'Brien at Ballyroe in County Tipperary, a yard that has sent out 30 winners already this season — a strong throughput that speaks to an operation that knows how to get horses ready to run well. Having that kind of backing matters for a young horse coming back from a layoff. If the team has brought her back to the track, it is usually because they believe she is ready.