Roderick

Those two wins tell you something important about what Roderick needs to be at his best. Both came on wet, muddy ground, and in that specific condition he has won 2 of just 5 races — 40% — which is a genuinely remarkable conversion rate. Most horses barely notice the state of the ground. Roderick notices everything. Put him on soft ground at a distance between a mile and a mile and two furlongs, and suddenly you have a horse who wins 2 from 22 attempts at that range, nearly 1 in every 10, which is meaningfully better than his overall record. The trainer clearly knows this, because Sweeney's yard has sent out 6 winners already this season, so this is not a team that runs horses without a plan.

His two wins came at Killarney in July 2023 and then, almost exactly two years later, at Naas in July 2025 — just eleven months ago. That second win is the detail that keeps Roderick interesting. A horse with two wins in 43 races who manages to add to his tally at ten years old is not a horse that has given up. He raced just yesterday, which tells you everything about his durability.

The recent form makes tougher reading: his last six runs read 20th, 7th, 7th, 12th, 4th, 2nd working backwards from the most recent, and he has not won in those six outings. His regular partner J M Sheridan has yet to get him into the winner's enclosure across 13 rides together. Sometimes a horse and jockey just have not found the right day yet. For Roderick, the right day tends to involve rain, a specific distance, and apparently a patient wait of about twelve months between victories. Whether another win is coming nobody can say — but this horse has already proven, twice, that it is possible.