Ollie La Ba Ba

The most recent win came at Listowel on 26 September 2025, about six months ago, and it matters because Listowel is one of the most beloved and competitive festival tracks in Ireland. Winning there, at any level, is no soft touch. The first career win came over a year earlier at Downpatrick in July 2024, so Ollie La Ba Ba went a long stretch between victories — which tells you this is a horse that needs everything to fall right on the day, but is absolutely capable of delivering when it does.

The partnership with jockey G B Noonan is a long one — 12 races together — and between them they have won once, which works out at roughly 1 in every 12 rides. That's a modest return, though it also reflects that Ollie La Ba Ba simply hasn't been winning races all that often regardless of who's in the saddle. Noonan clearly knows this horse well at this point, for better or worse.

Trainer Eoin Christopher McCarthy operates out of Athea in County Limerick and has had 15 winners on the board this season, which suggests a yard in decent form and capable of placing their horses competitively. That's a useful backdrop for a horse returning from a break — McCarthy knows where to place them.

And a break it has been. Ollie La Ba Ba hasn't raced in 92 days, just over three months, which is a meaningful absence and means the horse will need to shake off some rust. The most recent form before the layoff showed a sixth, a sixth, then that win at Listowel, then another sixth — so the pattern is one of occasional bright moments surrounded by quieter days. Six places from 19 races does suggest a horse that keeps competing honestly rather than fading into the pack entirely. The question on return is simply whether the Listowel performance was the beginning of something or a high point that's now in the rear-view mirror.