Della Casa Lunga

Her finest moment came on 27 December 2024, when she won at Kempton Park in one of the top races in Britain — a Class 2. That is the kind of result that puts a yard on the map, and for Clive Boultbee-Brooks, the trainer based in Woolhope in Herefordshire, it would have been a genuinely big occasion. His operation is not one of the giant stables you see dominating the headlines, but they have sent out 9 winners this season, and a victory at that level in late December suggests real ambition. Her first career win came back in March 2023 at Leopardstown in Ireland, which means she has always been capable of travelling and performing on a big stage.

The honest truth, though, is that she has not won since that Kempton success 16 months ago, and her recent form — finishing seventh, third, fourth, second, third, and then unseating the rider in her last six outings — paints a picture of a horse hovering just outside the winner's enclosure without quite breaking through. At the very top level, Class 1, she has drawn a blank from 5 attempts, which suggests that one tier below is probably her sweet spot.

Regular jockey Richard Patrick has been aboard for 14 of her 26 races, winning 2 of them — that is 1 win in every 7 rides together, a decent partnership without being a magical one. She raced just yesterday, which means she is very much in training and active, and the yard clearly have not given up on finding that next winning opportunity. For a horse that has shown she can win at a high level, even once, the question is always whether she can rediscover that form — or whether the Kempton win in December 2024 was, for now, the peak she has been working back towards ever since.