Rockbrook

The most striking thing about Rockbrook is what happens when the rain arrives. On wet or muddy ground, it has won 3 of 8 races — that's 38%, or better than 1 in every 3 attempts. For context, most horses win somewhere between 10 and 20% of their races across a career; winning more than a third of your races on a specific type of ground is the kind of stat that makes trainers plan their whole season around the weather forecast. When it's soft underfoot, Rockbrook becomes a different proposition entirely.

The horse's recent run of form bears that out. In the last six races — reading from most recent backwards — the sequence reads a DNF, fifth, then back-to-back wins, followed by a third and a seventh. Two wins from the last six races is excellent, and the win at Naas in January 2026 was the most recent, just three months ago. It is worth noting that Rockbow picked up its first career win at Galway as recently as October 2024, meaning most of this horse's best days have come late in life — a slow burner that has finally found its rhythm.

P J Rothwell, based in Tinahely in County Wicklow, trains the horse, and the yard is in strong form with 36 winners already this season — a productive outfit that clearly knows how to keep horses ticking over. The regular jockey Simon Torrens has yet to get his nose in front aboard Rockbrook across six attempts together, which is an interesting footnote; the two wins in recent form must have come with different riders in the saddle. That's not necessarily a concern — plenty of partnerships take time — but it's a dynamic worth watching if the pair line up again on soft ground this winter.