Harley Street

That one career win came at The Curragh in October 2022, now 43 months ago. The Curragh is Ireland's most prestigious flat track, a wide-open stretch of County Kildare where the best horses in the country are regularly put to the test, so getting a win there is no small thing, even if it has proved difficult to repeat. Since that day, Harley Street has not been back to the winner's enclosure — six races without a win in the most recent stretch, with the best efforts in that run being a third and a couple of mid-field finishes.

Regular jockey Mark Walsh has been in the saddle for six of those races without managing to find the winning feeling together. Walsh is a high-class rider, best known for his work at the top level of jump racing in Ireland, so his presence here suggests the yard genuinely fancies Harley Street's chances on the right day — they would not put a jockey of his calibre up without reason. The win simply has not come.

What keeps this interesting is the context around the horse rather than the horse alone. Donoghue's yard has sent out 26 winners already this season, which is a healthy, productive operation — this is not a small stable sending out hopeful outsiders and crossing its fingers. They know how to win races. The fact that Harley Street is still being actively campaigned, raced just yesterday, suggests there is a plan and a target in mind. Sometimes a horse needs exactly the right conditions and the right race to click — and when a trainer with a strong season behind them keeps faith with a horse like this, it is usually worth paying attention.