Working Away

Elliott himself has flagged Working Away as one to watch. Speaking recently, she described her as a mare who has been genuinely difficult to keep in training, but said she is now back in good shape and working well at home — the kind of quiet, careful endorsement that tends to mean something when it comes from a yard operating at that level. Two hundred and ten winners in a season is a remarkable number; these are people who know the difference between a horse that is ready and one that is not, and they are saying she is ready.

The recent form reads a little rough — a blank, then third, then ninth in her last three races, with the most recent coming just yesterday. But a horse that has been hard to train, returning from a difficult spell, finding her feet across three runs and now apparently thriving at home, is a horse whose record may be about to look very different. She has not won yet. She has shown she can place. And she has a trainer with one of the sharpest operations in Ireland quietly backing her. That combination is worth keeping an eye on.