Mickey Hulie

The recent form makes for mixed reading. A second and a third in the last six runs are encouraging signs, but surrounding those efforts are some disappointing finishes — including an eleventh, a ninth, and a thirteenth — which points to a horse that can run well on its day without being entirely consistent. Racing raced just one day ago, Mickey Hulie is very much active and in a busy spell of work.

Sean Flanagan has been the regular jockey, partnering Mickey Hulie in seven of its nine races, and that combination is yet to produce a winner. In a sport where jockey-horse partnerships often build into something over time, seven attempts without a win is a long run — though the placed finishes suggest the pair have not been far away on occasion. Trainer David Harry Kelly, operating out of Rathvin in County Tipperary, has had a productive season with 16 winners from the yard, which shows the operation knows how to get horses winning. The challenge now is finding the right opportunity to get Mickey Hulie into the winner's enclosure for the first time.