McLaurey

Both wins arrived in a tight window. The first came at Limerick on 28 December 2024, and the second followed just five weeks later at Leopardstown on 2 February 2025. Leopardstown is one of Ireland's most prestigious tracks, so winning there matters — it's not a place where ordinary horses pick up easy prizes. That back-to-back sequence suggested McLaurey was hitting a rich vein of form, but the six races since have brought nothing better than a third place, which makes the Leopardstown win look increasingly like a peak rather than a platform.

The horse is trained by Emmet Mullins at his yard in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow — an operation that has sent out 31 winners already this season, which tells you this is a yard in good health and clearly capable of producing winners. Mark Walsh, one of Ireland's most respected jockeys, has been in the saddle for nine of McLaurey's 13 races, winning once together — a 1-in-9 record, or about 11%. That's a modest return for such a high-profile rider, though it may say more about the difficulty of the races McLaurey has been competing in than about either horse or jockey. The fact that McLaurey raced just one day ago shows the team is keeping it busy, presumably hunting for the right opportunity to get it back into the winner's enclosure.