Piccolo Player

The horse's most recent outing came just yesterday, when it finished fifth. Looking back through its last half-dozen races, the pattern is one of consistency without sparkle: fifth, sixth, third, third, fourth, fifth. It is the kind of record that points to a horse capable of running respectably in its grade but struggling to find the winning touch. Michael Kenneally, who rides Piccolo Player most often, has had better luck aboard it than the overall statistics suggest—he has one win from five rides together, a 20 per cent win rate that hints at some chemistry worth noting. The trainer, John Patrick Ryan, runs his string from Templemore in Co Tipperary and has sent out 21 winners this season, so the yard clearly knows how to train winners even if Piccolo Player is not delivering them with any regularity.

That sole victory at Limerick in November now stands 11 months in the past. For a horse that is still racing actively, that is a long time between wins. Piccolo Player is not a horse with a reputation built on big days or memorable performances—it is an honest campaigner that has found one winner's circle and is doing its best to find another, however elusive that second success may prove to be.