My Ballyquinn

The recent run sheet reads 12-2-1-2-1-4, which means My Ballyquinn has been genuinely competitive of late. Two second-place finishes and a couple of fourth-place runs suggest it is mixing it with decent opposition and not getting left behind. The most recent race was just yesterday, so this is a horse very much in active work, suggesting the trainer feels there is more to come from it this season.

David O'Meara's yard at Upper Helmsley has been in flying form, sending out 101 winners already this season, and My Ballyquinn fits that pattern of a horse being given chances and showing up to answer them. The real clue to understanding this horse lies in ground conditions. On normal ground, it has won two of three races — a 67 per cent win rate on the surface it seems to prefer. Get those conditions right, and My Ballyquinn becomes genuinely dangerous. Both wins have come under those circumstances: the first at Hamilton Park back in May, the second more recently at York in late June. The gap since that York success is now eight weeks, so it is due a run and will be hungry for a return to the track where it last found the winning line.