Stat Of The Day — 20 October 2026
Stat Of The Day (20 October 2026)
Racing today is at Yarmouth, the Curragh, Hexham and Newcastle. Today’s stat comes from the feature race at the Curragh, the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes at 3pm, where 16 years of history point firmly away from the odds-on favourite.
Last updated: 20 October 2026, 12:00 UK time
GOLDEN RING (15:00 Curragh)
Aidan O’Brien has won 10 of the last 16 runnings – and every winner fits a profile favourite Maire Rua does not
Aidan O’Brien has made the Staffordstown Stud Stakes his own, winning ten of the 16 renewals since 2010, including each of the last three. Golden Ring is his only runner this year, and she ticks every box in the race’s trends. The same cannot be said of Maire Rua, who is a 10/11 shot to give Ger Lyons the prize.
The trends since 2010
- Aidan O’Brien: 10 of the 16 winners, including the last three (Content in 2023, Whirl in 2024 and Sugar Island in 2025)
- Experience: all 16 winners had won no more than once before
- Last-time-out form: all 16 had either finished first or second last time, or run in a Group or Listed race
- Freshness: all 16 had run between eight and 56 days earlier
- The market: 13 of the 16 winners were 8/1 or shorter, but only five favourites have won, and none since 2021
- Winning favourites: four of those five were trained by O’Brien
Why Golden Ring fits
O’Brien’s filly makes only her fifth start today, and her single win came over today’s mile in a Dundalk fillies’ maiden on 2 October, which she won at 2/5. Ryan Moore then partnered her in the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket just seven days later, where she was prominent, challenged over two furlongs out and was beaten less than two lengths in seventh of 14, dropping back to seven furlongs.
That profile is a carbon copy of last year’s winner, Sugar Island, who finished ninth in a Group 1 at Newmarket 11 days before landing this prize at 5/1. Golden Ring also comes here 11 days on from her Newmarket run, and Moore keeps the ride.
Taking on the favourite
Maire Rua has won twice already, and no winner of this race since 2010 had more than one victory to her name. She is a worthy favourite on the bare form, and the best on ratings, but at 10/11 she has to defy a trend that has held for 16 years, in a race where only one favourite not trained by O’Brien, Limiti Di Greccio in 2021, has won since 2010. The Good Wife, at 7/2, is the other one to note, as trainer Paddy Twomey and jockey Billy Lee won this in 2020 and 2021.
The bet
Golden Ring each-way, 3pm Curragh – 6/1 with bet365 and William Hill (5/1 Paddy Power), three places at one-fifth the odds. She has the trainer, the profile and the jockey, and the each-way terms provide cover if the favourite does prove good enough.
The risks
- The ground is yielding today, and all four of her runs so far have come on good ground or Dundalk’s all-weather surface
- Maire Rua is the highest-rated filly in the field and has the strongest form in the book
- Golden Ring has only one win from four starts and still has to prove she belongs at Group level