Darkness

The ability is real. Darkness opened his account at Newmarket in July 2023, one of the sharper tracks in the country, and last August he landed one of the top races in Britain — a Class 2 at Goodwood, a track that hosts some of the most prestigious summer racing on the calendar. Winning there is not something a horse stumbles into. The trouble is, for every performance like that, there are runs that leave you scratching your head. O'Meara said it himself during a stable tour: Darkness is a law unto himself, a horse with more than enough talent who simply does not always choose to use it. Jockey Hollie Doyle put it plainly after a run at Epsom — plenty of ability, the trick is getting it out of him.

One thing that does unlock him is dry ground. On fast, dry ground he has won 4 of his 16 races, a win rate of 25%. That is genuinely impressive, and it explains a lot — he is a fair-weather performer in the most literal sense, a horse who shows up when the conditions suit. His overall record at Class 2 level is just 1 win from 23 races, which sounds thin, but that single win came at Goodwood, and it counts. Jason Watson, who has ridden him 13 times, has found him just as hard to unlock as anyone — one win together from those 13 races.

O'Meara's yard has been in excellent form this season, sending out 107 winners, so the platform is there. Darkness raced just yesterday and his recent form has been inconsistent — finishing tenth and sixth in his last two runs before that, with a win two runs before that. He is a horse who asks questions of everyone around him. When the ground dries out and everything clicks, he can beat some very good horses. The rest of the time, he keeps you guessing.