Kargese
Kargese was gallant in defeat in the Irish Arkle at the Dublin Racing Festival, going down by just a neck to Romeo Coolio. It was only a three-horse race, which effectively became a two-horse race quite early in the piece, but it was an intriguing race to watch as the balance of power between the two protagonists ebbed and flowed. Kargese looked the likely winner when she went on after the second last, which is probably around about the point at which she traded at 1.1 in-running, but Romeo Coolio had run her down by the time they got to the final flight. He jumped to the front there, where she made a mistake, and it looked like that was that, but she rallied as he tired or idled, or maybe a little bit of both, and she closed the gap to a neck by the time they got to the winning line. Three strides past the line and she was in front again.
It was an admirable performance from Romeo Coolio, a third Grade 1 novice chase, and over a distance that is surely short of his best. But Kargese is probably the one to take out of the race with the Arkle at Cheltenham in mind. You couldn't really appreciate the significance of the mistake that she made at the final fence from the normal camera. It was only when you looked at the overhead view that you could fully ascertain how much ground and momentum she lost. And the visual is backed up by the RaceIQ data. She lost 0.19 lengths at the fence, it was her only minus figure of the race, and her recovery time was 3.07secs. Her next slowest recovery time was 1.00sec, at the first fence. She is a Cheltenham horse too, in two visits there she won a County Hurdle and she finished second behind Majborough in a Triumph Hurdle, and the test that the Arkle presents should suit her well.
Leopardstown, 2nd February 2026
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