Ob La Di

The partnership with jockey Ben Coen has been the consistent thread through most of this horse's career. They have raced together 12 times and won twice — a win rate of around 1 in 6 — which is meaningfully better than the horse's overall record. That gap matters. It suggests Coen has worked out something about how Ob La Di needs to be ridden, and the horse tends to respond. When you find a jockey-horse combination that clicks, it often shows up in the numbers exactly like this.

The trainer is J P Murtagh, operating out of Coolaghknock Glebe in County Kildare, and the yard has been in fine form this season — 54 winners and counting. A busy, successful stable can be a real advantage for a horse like this, because the horses around it are fit and well, the routine is sharp, and there is no shortage of confidence in the yard. Murtagh knows what he has here and presumably believes there is more to come.

The recent form reads 16-12-12-5-1-4 from the last six races, most recent first. Those finishing positions in the teens look discouraging until you notice the shape of the sequence: a win, a near-miss in fifth, then three runs that have gone sideways. Horses come in and out of form, and the question with Ob La Di is whether those last few races represent a temporary dip or something more lasting. The fact that it raced just yesterday — and the team keeps running it — suggests belief that the good version of this horse is still in there somewhere.