Net Boy

What makes Net Boy genuinely interesting right now is his relationship with Ballinrobe, a tight, turning track in County Mayo. He has won there twice from just three visits — that's a 67% win rate at a single course, which is the kind of figure that makes people sit up. Not every horse suits every track, and when you find one that clearly loves a particular place, it tells you something real about how they race. He ran there just this week and won, which means he's in the form of his life heading into the summer.

His record on normal ground underlines that further. In three races on standard conditions, he's won twice — again, 2 from 3. He doesn't need any particular advantage from the weather or the ground to perform; he just needs things to be straightforward, and he delivers.

The team behind him is trained by Barry Connell at Nurney in Co. Kildare, a yard that has sent out seven winners already this season — a productive operation by any measure. Sean Flanagan has ridden Net Boy in five of his nine races, winning once together (1 from 5, or 20%), but the partnership has clearly been building toward something. Two wins from his last six races, including one just days ago, suggests this is a horse peaking at exactly the right time.

For a horse who only recorded his first career win in May 2025, the progress has been rapid. From a debut winner to a course specialist with back-to-back wins at the same track in the space of a year — Net Boy has quietly become one of the more reliable names to look out for when Ballinrobe appears on the card.