November 2025
We don’t tend to have a big team of horses for the all-weather season at Dundalk, but we were pleased to get amongst the winners there this month with a filly who very much deserved her first win.
Lunigiana has been one of the most consistent maidens anywhere in the country so I was thrilled for her, and her owner-breeder Renzo Forni, to get off the mark over five furlongs in a maiden. She had been placed in eight of her 11 starts before this - including four seconds that she could well have won with a bit of luck. All in all, it was a very important one to get on the board, given she already has blacktype from her two-year-old season.
Hopefully she’s got an exciting future ahead in the breeding sheds after a visit to City Of Troy at Coolmore. Before then, we’ll probably give her another couple of runs, now that she’s got her head in front.
Lunigiana gets off the mark in Dundalk
On the same card at Dundalk, we went close in the feature of the night when Jancis finished a good second in the Listed Cooley Stakes. It was obviously a pity to bump into an improving three-year-old filly then, but at least she picked up more blacktype for her owner-breeder Arturo Cousino.
She’s a filly with plenty of class and we’ll be looking forward to seeing her again next season, after a 30-day break in Ballylinch Stud. Hopefully she’ll continue to hold her own in good company in 2026.
Ready To Mingle, racing for owner Anna Calder, has been going the right way on the all-weather lately, and posted a second and a third here within a fortnight. Those solid runs came over very different trips too.
We rode her positively over seven furlongs at the beginning of the month and she kept galloping to the line after being passed by one. She then had a crack at a mile and a half, ridden a little more quietly, and ran another decent race in third. As a half-sister to a Group 2 winner, Duhail, who also finished fourth in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes, she could be a valuable filly. Her next engagement is the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
On the final day of the turf season at the Curragh, there was a fine run from Asdana at 40/1 when second in a sprint handicap for the Deegans. For whatever reason, there was a bias towards the stand’s side rail throughout the day at the Curragh, and we made our challenge just a couple of lengths off it (the winner was nearest the rail in the closing stages).
Having won on good ground earlier in the season for us at Cork, it was encouraging to see Asdana handling heavy ground well enough here. She’s a quick filly who is only three, and hopefully she’ll keep going the right way next year.
Speaking of the turf season coming to a close, our total number of winners came to 20 - matching last year’s total. Our tally shows up at 19 on the HRI database for the moment, but Steel Magnolia is due to be promoted to first after the winner from her Bellewstown handicap second returned a positive sample.
Put simply, though, the big difference between 2024 and 2025 was our number of seconds. We had a massive 35 horses in the runner-up spot this year, which is comfortably more than we’ve ever had in a season - and close to double the seconds we had through the whole turf season in 2024. If even half of those had won, we’d have had easily our best ever season!
It’s obviously frustrating to be hitting the crossbar, even if it’s a sign the horses have been running well. On the plus side, our prize money total this year is in front of where we stood 12 months ago, we had more winners than was the case a year earlier in 2023 and Vespertilio’s win in the Listed Dash Stakes on Irish Derby day at the Curragh was a really enjoyable one on a big weekend in Irish racing.
I’d like to say a word of thanks to all our owners, staff, jockeys and extended team for their support and hard work throughout the year. We couldn’t do it without them all. We’ll be ready to give the 2026 season another good rattle when the turf rolls around again next March.