Loughderg Rocco

Murphy is one of British racing's most productive trainers right now — his yard at Wilmcote in Warwickshire has sent out 146 winners already this season, which is the kind of output that puts him firmly among the elite operators in the country. He is worth listening to when he talks about a horse's potential, and on Loughderg Rocco he has been clear-eyed: he always believed this horse would come alive when it switched from hurdles to fences, rating it a fair but unremarkable hurdler with a mark of 121. The hope was that jumping bigger obstacles would unlock something more. That faith looked well placed when Loughderg Rocco went to Wetherby and finished a half-length second behind the useful Gelino Bello in what had become a two-horse race — and did so at 16-1, when almost no one gave it a prayer.

The wins themselves came at Musselburgh in March 2022 and then at Leicester the following December, and both came at Class 3 level — solid, competitive races rather than easy pickings. At that grade, Loughderg Rocco has won 1 from 4 races, a 25% win rate that actually outperforms its overall career average. The problem is that December 2022 win at Leicester was 41 months ago now, and the recent form — finishing fourth and seventh in its last two runs after a win and a placed effort before that — suggests the horse is still in the mix but not quite finding that extra gear when it matters most.

Raced just one day ago, Loughderg Rocco is very much a live, active competitor. Whether Murphy can unlock what he clearly believes is still in there is the interesting question — because at ten, the window is not getting any wider.