Vaureal

The key to understanding Vaureal is the ground. On wet, muddy conditions, this horse has won 2 of just 4 races — a 50% win rate that is frankly extraordinary. Most horses show a mild preference for one surface or another. Winning half your races in a specific set of conditions is a genuine superpower, the kind of stat that has punters watching the weather forecast more closely than the racing papers. On any other surface, Vaureal tends to disappear into the pack, which explains why the broader career numbers — 10%, roughly 1 in every 10 races — look so unremarkable at first glance.

The most recent win came at Fairyhouse on 30 November 2025, and the current form reads 5-2-4-5-7-1 from the last six outings, with that winning run sitting right at the base of the sequence. Since then, Vaureal has finished second once and picked up two other placed efforts, so the horse is running consistently competitive races without quite getting back to the winner's enclosure. Crucially, Vaureal raced just one day ago, meaning this is a horse in the thick of a busy campaign right now.

Jockey Caragh Monaghan has been the regular partner, riding Vaureal in 5 of those races and winning 1 — a 20% win rate together, which is actually well above the horse's career average and suggests the partnership suits. The whole operation is trained by Ian Patrick Donoghue out of Clonalvy in County Meath, a yard that has sent out 26 winners already this season — a solid, busy stable that clearly knows how to place its horses to best advantage.

Vaureal is the kind of horse a knowledgeable fan keeps one eye on whenever the rain arrives. Unremarkable in the dry, quietly dangerous in the wet.