Takarengo

That one win does tell you something useful, though. Over distances between a mile and six furlongs and two miles, Takarengo has won 1 from 14 races — a 7% win rate, which sounds modest but is dramatically better than its overall record. Those middle distances are clearly where it is best suited, and The Curragh, a wide, flat, galloping track in County Kildare, seems to bring something out in it that other venues don't.

James M Barcoe trains the horse from a yard in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, and it is a busy operation — seven winners sent out already this season, which shows the team knows how to get horses competitive. Danny Mullins, one of Ireland's most experienced jump jockeys, has partnered Takarengo nine times without a win together, though that reflects the horse's overall record rather than any particular failing on Mullins's part.

Recent form makes for sobering reading. In the last six races, Takarengo has finished fourth and sixth twice, with two unplaced runs in between. It raced just yesterday, so it is active and clearly still finding its way into competitions. At ten years old, that is actually noteworthy — most horses at this stage of their careers are winding down, yet this one is still turning up. Whether that says something about the horse's constitution, or simply about the patience of the team around it, is hard to say. What it does mean is that Takarengo is not a horse chasing big prizes — it is one that keeps competing at its own level, and every now and then, on the right day at the right track, it has shown it can make a race of it.