Victoria Kesia

That single win came at Limerick on 25 April 2025, and it arrived over a trip of around a mile and a furlong to a mile and two furlongs — the distance range where she has done all of her best work. In fact, across 11 races at those trips, she has won 1 and placed 4 times, meaning she has finished in the first few nearly half the time she lines up over her favoured distance. That is not a horse without ability — that is a horse who knows what she likes.

Gary Carroll has been in the saddle for 11 of her 18 races, winning once together, which works out at roughly 1 in every 11 rides. That is not a spectacular number, but the loyalty between rider and horse suggests the team at John Joseph Hanlon's yard in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, believe they understand her. Hanlon has been in decent form this season, sending out 11 winners from his yard, so the infrastructure is there for a horse like Victoria Kesia to find her moment.

Her recent form figures — eighth, sixteenth, and a couple of blanks — suggest she is currently in a quiet spell, and her last win is now 13 months in the past. But she raced just one day ago, so she is clearly a horse being kept busy and pointed at opportunities. The team have not given up on her, and given what she showed at Limerick, it is not hard to see why. When the trip is right and the day clicks, she has shown she can get the job done. The question is when that day comes around again.