Kate Knows Best

What makes her current form worth watching is the trajectory. Looking back through her last six races, she was well beaten in mid-field for a spell, then crept to third, and most recently broke through to win. That's not a horse in decline — that's a horse finding form at exactly the right moment. She raced just yesterday, which tells you the team are keeping her active and confident.

Behind her is John Patrick Ryan, training out of Templemore in County Tipperary. Ryan's yard has been in solid nick this season, sending out 21 winners — a healthy total that suggests a yard operating with good horses in good form. When a trainer is firing at that rate, it's often worth paying attention to what they run next, and Kate Knows Best looks like a horse they're working with rather than just filling a field.

She's not a big earner or a headline act, and at eight she's not a horse built around potential anymore. But there's something quietly compelling about a horse who keeps showing up, keeps placing, and finally gets her moment. Whether she can back it up is the next question — and with a race just yesterday, that answer may not be far away.