Spanish Maid

Her first career win came at Tramore in April 2026, and within a month she had added a second at Punchestown — one of the most prestigious tracks in Ireland — just this week. Two wins from her last six races is a sharp turnaround from a horse who had spent most of her career threatening rather than delivering, and it suggests something has clicked, whether that is fitness, confidence, or simply finding the right conditions.

What makes that Punchestown win particularly worth noting is the venue itself. Winning there is not the same as winning at a quiet midweek track. Punchestown carries real prestige, and a horse who gets it right there is doing something right. Coming just days after her Tramore win, it points to a horse who is genuinely in form rather than flukily in the right place.

She is trained by Ross O'Sullivan at his yard in Kilcullen, Co Kildare, and the operation is clearly firing well — 35 winners sent out this season alone. That is a busy, confident yard, and Spanish Maid appears to be one of the horses benefitting from that momentum.

One curious footnote: her most regular partner, jockey Donagh Meyler, has ridden her in 11 of her races without a single win between them. That is not necessarily damning — horses and jockeys can simply not click despite plenty of chances — but it makes her two recent wins, almost certainly not with Meyler aboard, feel all the more striking. She has been watched closely for a long time. Lately, she has started giving people something to shout about.