Slane Hill

The most striking number in Slane Hill's record is this: on slightly wet ground, the horse has won 2 of its 4 races. That is a 50% win rate — flipping a coin odds — which is extraordinary in a sport where even the best horses rarely win more than a third of their races. It suggests that when conditions suit, Slane Hill becomes a genuinely different proposition, one that Barry Connell's yard at Nurney, Co. Kildare, will be well aware of when entries are being considered.

Connell's team has been in decent form this season, sending out 7 winners, and their most trusted partner for Slane Hill is jockey Michael O'Sullivan, who has ridden the horse in 9 of its 19 races and won on 2 of them — a win rate of roughly 1 in every 4 rides together. That is a solid partnership, and the familiarity between horse and rider matters more than people often realise at this level.

The honest caveat is that Slane Hill has not won in its last 6 races, and the most recent run — just yesterday — produced an 11th-place finish. The last victory came at Navan in November 2024, now 17 months ago. The recent form figures of 11-5-4-3-3-5 tell a story of a horse running competitively enough to place regularly but not quite finding that extra gear to get its nose in front. Seven places from 19 career races shows consistency; the winning has just dried up for now.

What keeps this interesting is the ground angle. Slane Hill raced to a first career win at Naas back in December 2022, and the three wins in total span a career that has taken in 19 races across several years. This is not a horse chasing glory in the biggest races — it is a tough, durable competitor whose the yard will be watching the weather forecast as carefully as anything else.