Gringo d'Aubrelle

The overall numbers paint a picture of a useful, consistent performer rather than a star. Three wins and seven placed efforts from 15 races gives him a win rate of 20% — roughly one in every five races — which is solid, and the seven places show he is rarely far off the action when he runs his race. Gordon Elliott, whose yard at Longwood in Co Meath has sent out 209 winners this season alone, has spoken openly about Gringo d'Aubrelle being underrated by the ratings system, believing he is better than his current mark. That is the kind of thing a trainer says when he thinks there is a big day still to come.

Elliott has also noted that Gringo d'Aubrelle has not always been the easiest to train — that when everything clicks, though, there is a performance in him worth waiting for. What seems to bring the best out of him is a longer distance and a proper battle. After a race at Fairyhouse, Elliott described exactly what he loves about this horse: the way he drops his head and fights all the way to the line. That is not a horse coasting on talent — that is one who competes.

After a short break of 33 days, he returns having last won five months ago, again at Navan. Whether he lines up there again remains to be seen, but his record at that track — two wins from seven races, compared to one win from eight elsewhere — makes it the obvious place to find him at his best. For a ten-year-old who has been around the block, Gringo d'Aubrelle still has people believing there is something special waiting around the corner.