Sommelier

Overall, the record reads 3 wins and 6 places from 20 races, which works out at winning roughly 1 in every 7 outings. That is a modest headline number, but it flatters to deceive — Sommelier has spent most of its career competing in some of the top races in Britain and Ireland, Class 2 events where it is 0 from 7. Pitching a horse of this level into those races week after week and coming away empty-handed is not a disgrace; it is just reality. The talent is real, but so is the company it keeps.

Kieran P Cotter trains Sommelier from his base in Portarlington, Co Laois, a yard that has sent out 6 winners already this season and clearly knows how to get a horse ready to run. Cotter's team put Sommelier on the board for the first time at Chelmsford in November 2023, and the horse has built steadily from there. The jockey who gets the most out of this horse is Marco Ghiani, who has won 2 of their 6 races together — that is a 33% win rate, or 1 in every 3 rides. For context, most jockey-horse partnerships never manage that kind of return over six races. Something clearly clicks between them.

The most recent win came just four weeks ago at The Curragh on the 3rd of June 2026 — Ireland's most famous flat track — and Sommelier raced again just yesterday, so this is a horse in the middle of a busy campaign. Recent form shows a win and a place in the last six runs, which suggests the horse is competitive and well within itself. If the ground turns soft in the weeks ahead, watch for Sommelier to be right at the heart of things.