Typical Thomas

His last win came at Cork in October 2023 — 32 months ago now — and that gap tells its own story. Horses can go long stretches between wins and still be competitive, but the form figures here suggest Typical Thomas is not running close. He is not unlucky and finishing second; he is finishing seventh and eighth. The only real flicker of what he was capable of comes in the ground data: on slightly soft conditions, he has won 2 from 9 races, a win rate of 22%, or roughly 1 in every 4-and-a-half. That is meaningfully better than his overall record, and it is the kind of detail that explains why he keeps getting entered. On the right kind of ground, on the right kind of day, there is a race in him.

James Andrew Fahey trains him out of Stradbally in Co Laois, a yard that has sent out 5 winners already this season, so the operation is clearly functioning. But the most striking number in Typical Thomas's profile might be the partnership with jockey Aidan Kelly — 11 races together without a single win. That is not necessarily anyone's fault; plenty of those races may have been unwinnable. But it is the sort of statistic that makes you wonder whether a change might shake things up. Typical Thomas raced just yesterday, so he is very much in active service, and at nine years old he is not a young horse finding his feet. He is an experienced campaigner who knows the job. Whether he can find his way back to the winner's enclosure is another matter entirely.