Roccabaker

That one win came at Tramore on New Year's Day 2026, and it remains the standout moment of the career so far. Tramore is a tight, quirky track on the south coast of Ireland, the kind of place that suits horses who know what they're doing, and Roccabaker clearly found something to like there. Four months on, the yard — David Harry Kelly's operation in Rathvin, Co Tipperary, which has sent out 16 winners already this season — will be hoping that winning feeling isn't too far away again.

The most regular partnership in the saddle has been with Mr C M Quirke, who has ridden Roccabaker in 9 of those 14 races and been there for the one win between them. That's a win rate of roughly 1 in every 9 rides together — modest, but the fact they keep coming back to each other suggests a working relationship the team believes in. Recent form reads 7-7-–-3-1-6 going back through the last six runs, with that New Year's Day victory sitting in the middle of the sequence. Since then, a third place has been the best on offer, with two seventh-place finishes either side of it.

At 8 years old and with recent racing still on the schedule, Roccabaker is not a horse anyone is wrapping in cotton wool. The search for a second win continues.