Court Canyon

He is trained by Ian Patrick Donoghue out of a yard in Clonalvy, County Meath, and the operation is clearly in good form — 26 winners sent out already this season. Donoghue has spoken warmly about Court Canyon since the horse broke his duck at Clonmel in October 2025, describing him as "a nice horse" with room to progress into stronger company. That belief appears to be well-founded, given what has followed.

What stands out most is how well Court Canyon performs on normal ground conditions. From 3 races on a standard surface, he has won 2 of them — a 67% win rate, or roughly 2 in every 3 outings in those conditions. That is a striking pattern. Some horses are fragile things that need everything to go their way; Court Canyon, at least on good ground, seems to find his best quite reliably.

His recent form reads 1-1-3-2-13-18 from back to front, meaning after a couple of quiet efforts early on, he has come to life in a big way. Back-to-back wins in his last two races is the kind of momentum that makes trainers start looking at better races. Donoghue has already mentioned the possibility of stepping him up into a winners' race or a rated contest — which would mean facing stronger horses and finding out just how good he might be. Given how quickly he has developed, that conversation feels timely rather than premature.