West Is Awake

The most striking number attached to this horse is what happens when Phillip Enright is in the saddle. In five races together, Enright has steered West Is Awake to both of its career wins — a 40% win rate, or 2 from 5. That is a remarkable partnership by any measure. Compare that to the horse's overall record and the conclusion is fairly clear: if you're watching West Is Awake, you want to see Enright's name on the racecard.

Those two wins came at Naas in March 2022 and Fairyhouse in October 2023. The Fairyhouse win is now 30 months in the past, and the last six races have brought a second-place finish as the highlight, with the rest of the results trailing off into the mid-to-lower teens. At 10 years old, horses are not usually getting faster, and the recent form makes for difficult reading. West Is Awake has not raced in 87 days, which represents a short break rather than anything dramatic — the kind of pause that can sharpen a horse up or simply reflect a yard waiting for the right opportunity.

That yard is Edward Cawley's operation in Batterstown, Co Meath, which has sent out just one winner so far this season. It is a small yard working with what it has, and West Is Awake, with its modest career earnings and patchy recent form, is representative of the level. None of that is a criticism — most racehorses operate in exactly this world, far from the television cameras and the big prize money, running in competitive races where every win is earned rather than given.

What keeps West Is Awake worth watching is simple: when the right jockey is on board and the right race comes along, this horse has shown it can get the job done. It has done it twice. Whether there is a third win in a 10-year-old with six consecutive blanks on its record is the question, and honest observers would say the odds are against it — but that Enright partnership makes it less clear-cut than the bare numbers suggest.