Therellbguddaysyet

The problem is that since Thurles, the waiting has resumed. Six races have passed without a win, and the most recent run produced a fifth-place finish — respectable enough on the surface, but part of a sequence that reads 5-4-6-7-3-17, which tells a story of a horse finding its level rather than climbing toward it. That 17th place somewhere in the middle of that run is the kind of result that tests even the most patient supporter.

Paul O'Flynn trains the horse out of Mallow in County Cork, and his yard has sent out 6 winners this season, so the operation clearly knows how to get a horse ready to win. Darragh O'Keeffe has been the regular partner, riding in 5 of the 14 races and landing that one victory together. That works out to a win rate of 20% when they're paired — 1 from 5 — which is actually a perfectly decent record for a combination, even if the sample size is small. It suggests O'Keeffe knows what he's dealing with, and the horse may simply need things to fall right.

At 10 years old and still racing — in fact, it ran just one day ago — Therellbguddaysyet is a horse that keeps turning up. There's something genuinely likeable about that. It hasn't won in 18 months, it doesn't win often, and it isn't going to trouble the big prizes. But it keeps racing, and somewhere in that name is the whole story: not a horse that dazzles, but one that keeps believing the next race might just be the good day.