The First Turn

That sole win came at Thurles on 30 October 2025, and it remains the most recent success on the card. Six months have passed since then, and the two runs since have brought a pair of seventh-place finishes, which raises a natural question about whether the horse has found its level or is simply waiting for conditions to click into place again.

Trained by S Curling out of Cashel in County Tipperary, The First Turn is part of a yard that has been in decent form — 14 winners on the board already this season is a useful benchmark, suggesting the stable is not short of confidence or ability. When a trainer is firing in winners at that rate, it tends to mean the horses around them are fit, well-placed, and ready to run. That context matters when assessing a horse that has gone quiet since October.

At five years old, The First Turn is still young enough that the story is very much unfinished. Those two recent sevenths are the kind of form that can read worse than it is — much depends on the quality of the fields, the distances, and how the races were run. What is clear is that this horse knows how to win, it knows Thurles suits it, and it has a trainer behind it who is sending out winners right now. The next run will tell us a great deal about which direction this career is heading.