Shadow Paddy

The first breakthrough came at Tipperary in May 2025, but it's Limerick where Shadow Paddy has really made its mark. Two wins from just three races at the track is a remarkable return — two in every three visits ending in a winner is the kind of record that would make any trainer point straight back there when the entries open. The most recent of those Limerick victories came on 18 October 2025, and while that's around six months ago now, the horse raced just yesterday, which tells you it's firmly in training and being kept busy.

The ground matters here. On slightly soft underfoot conditions — a little give in the surface after recent rain — Shadow Paddy has won 2 of 3 races, a 67% win rate that is frankly extraordinary. That's not a fluke, that's a horse that runs to a different level when the conditions suit. Keep an eye on the forecast.

Trainer Eoin Christopher McCarthy, based out of Athea in County Limerick, has had fifteen winners already this season — a yard in decent form, not a small operation quietly ticking over. Jockey G B Noonan has been the regular partner, riding Shadow Paddy in eight of its eleven races and winning three of them, or roughly 38 out of every 100 rides together. That kind of continuity — same jockey, same trainer, horse hitting form — tends to produce results, and it has done here. Shadow Paddy is an active, in-form horse that knows where it likes to run and what kind of ground brings out the best in it. That combination is harder to find than it sounds.