Verhoyen

Those four wins do follow a clear pattern. Give Verhoyen normal ground conditions and a trip of between seven furlongs and a mile, and you are seeing the horse at its best. On normal ground it has won 3 of its 16 races at that condition — roughly 1 in 5, which is a genuinely strong return compared to its overall record and suggests the surface really does matter here. At the seven-furlong to one-mile trip, all four career wins have come, from 25 races at those distances — 1 in every 6 outings. That is a horse that knows what it likes.

The most recent win came at Fairyhouse in July 2024, nearly two years ago now, and the last six races have brought no victory — the best finish in that spell a fourth place. The recent form figures of 6-4-blank-14-18-9 suggest a horse that can still place on a good day but is finding wins harder to come by as it ages. Trainer M C Grassick, based at the Curragh in Co. Kildare, has sent out six winners already this season, so the yard is in decent form, even if Verhoyen itself has gone quiet. The horse first won at The Curragh back in May 2022, making it something of a local success story for the stable.

Regular partner W J Lee has been aboard for 20 of those 57 races and brings the best out of the combination — three of the four career wins have come with Lee in the saddle, a win rate of 15%, or roughly 1 in every 7 rides together. That is more than double Verhoyen's overall ratio, which suggests the partnership genuinely works. The horse raced just yesterday, so it remains active and in training. At 11, every race feels like borrowed time, but Verhoyen clearly still has the yard willing to keep running it — and on the right ground, over the right trip, with Lee up, it remains capable of making its presence felt.