Whatsavailable

The overall numbers are modest — 3 wins and 10 places from 33 races puts the win rate at around 1 in every 11 races — but those raw figures don't tell the whole story. The ground matters too. On slightly soft going, Whatsavailable has won 2 from 7 races, which works out at roughly 1 in every 3.5 attempts. When the conditions suit and the track is right, this is a different animal entirely. Jockey Darragh O'Keeffe knows it better than anyone, having ridden it in 21 of those 33 races and been on board for all 3 wins — a partnership that wins roughly 1 in every 7 races together (14%), which outperforms the horse's overall average considerably.

The tricky part right now is that Whatsavailable is returning from a break of around seven months, and its recent form before that layoff makes for uncomfortable reading: finishes of 10th, 12th, and 13th in its last three races suggest it was running out of steam last season. The last win came at Fairyhouse in November 2024, now 17 months ago. At eight years old, it's not a young horse trying to find its level — it knows what it is, and what it needs.

Trained by M F Morris out of Fethard in County Tipperary, a yard that has sent out 4 winners already this season, Whatsavailable arrives back on a racecourse as something of a riddle. The form looks poor on paper, the absence is long, and the wins have dried up. But if the ground comes up soft and the race card sends it back to Fairyhouse, it would be a brave person who writes it off entirely. Some horses just have a place that brings out the best in them, and for this one, that place is very specific indeed.