Piazza San Marco

What matters here is not the bare record but the yard. A P O'Brien's operation at Cashel has sent out 125 winners already this season—that is a formidable rate and suggests this is a stable with genuine eye for getting horses in the right race at the right time. O'Brien does not keep duds in training, which means Piazza San Marco's the yard clearly believe there is a winning race in this horse. The gap of twelve months since the last victory is notable, but sometimes that happens; what counts is whether the recent third-place finish signals a return to form. The fact that the horse is still being raced regularly, and only just came off the track a day ago, suggests the team have not given up on the project. Watch this horse at Galway again when it next gets the opportunity—it has already proven it can win there once, and it may well prove it can do so again.