Ambitious Fellow

The conditions he runs on matter a great deal with this horse. On wet or muddy ground he has won 2 of just 4 races — that's a 50% win rate, which is extraordinary. The trainer has been open about the fact that running him on very heavy ground at Wetherby was a mistake, and it's the kind of honest self-awareness from a trainer that tells you a lot about how well they understand their horse. When the ground is right, Ambitious Fellow is a genuine handful for his rivals.

His most productive partnership has been with jockey Sam Ewing, who has ridden him to 3 wins from 10 races together — that's 30%, or winning nearly 1 in every 3 times they team up. That's a strong win rate for any pairing and suggests Ewing has a good feel for how to get the best out of him. His last win came at Galway in August 2023, 33 months ago now, though Fahey has explained there was a physical issue after a run at Limerick that knocked him back for a period — he arrived at Galway looking restored, and that's exactly what he was.

His recent form reads 5-–-–-2-3-20, which is patchy, but he raced just yesterday and remains active. The early career win came at Fairyhouse in October 2021, and since then he has been competitive at a decent level without always getting the luck or the ground he needs. Fahey has previously mentioned a big €100,000 race at Navan as a target if conditions suit, and there has been talk of sending him over fences — a switch that can breathe new life into a horse at this stage. At 10, Ambitious Fellow is not a young horse, but with the right ground under his feet, he remains a live contender every time he lines up.