Sammy Smart

His overall numbers are modest. A 9% win rate across 23 races works out to roughly 1 win in every 11 attempts, and he has picked up 9 places along the way, so he finds the frame regularly enough without always converting. But the recent form is pointing in the right direction. Reading from most recent backwards, his last six runs read: a result still to be recorded, then third, fourth, sixth, a win, and a second. That sequence tells the story of a horse who had a proper purple patch — winning at Punchestown on New Year's Eve 2025 and finishing second just before it — and has since been running respectably without quite recapturing that peak.

Darragh O'Keeffe has been the regular partner, riding Sammy Smart in 11 of his 23 races and winning once together. That's the same 9% win rate as the horse's overall record, so it's a steady partnership if not a spectacular one. Behind the scenes, Thomas Gibney trains him from a yard in Trim, County Meath — a small operation that has sent out 5 winners this season, which shows it is punching its weight. Sammy Smart raced just yesterday, so he is very much in active campaign.

What makes him genuinely watchable is simple: when Punchestown comes around, pay attention. A horse who has won 2 from 6 at one specific track, while winning 0 from 17 everywhere else, is telling you something very clearly about where he is most at home. At 10, he is not getting younger, but the New Year's Eve win was only five months ago — proof that the spark is still there when conditions are right.