NOT many Irish premier handicaps are won with the type of swagger that Loughrea won the Tote Irish Cambridgeshire with last Saturday. Then again, not many yards are having the type of season that his trainer Andy Slattery has been having in 2026.

Next March will mark 30 years since the Co Tipperary handler sent out his first winner and - after a flurry of victories in the past few days - the current campaign is now officially his very best yet. The success of his family-run operation has been one of the standout stories of the 2026 flat season so far.

Loughrea was one of six Slattery-trained winners in the space of five days in Ireland. Even after starting the season with real gusto - rattling off six flat winners in March, five in April and six more in both May and June - he kept his foot to the pedal with a further seven on the level in the month of August. It is a demonstration of major consistency year-round, and continued progress with a host of handicappers.

For the first time also, they are currently on course for a top-10 finish in the Irish Flat Trainers’ Championship (ninth at present).

All told, the recent surge has put the Slattery team on 31 winners for the 2026 flat season - a new career-best, with two months of the campaign left to go. It also means they have now set new career-high tallies for Irish flat seasons in each of the last three years. That is quite the feat for an outfit originally better known for producing National Hunt performers like Faugheen, Cooldine, Quel Esprit, Monksland and Will The Wise.

Diverse operation

On that theme of National Hunt prowess, it hasn’t just been the Slatterys’ flat string who are keeping the yard’s name up in lights this year. Only in the spring, we saw Fleur In The Park provide the trainer with a first Grade 1 triumph in the WillowWarm Gold Cup at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival.

A total of 21 National Hunt winners through last season represented his very best return by some way for a jumps campaign. His previous best had been 11 (a year earlier) and he is already up to double digits (10) for the current campaign this summer.

When combining flat and National Hunt successes for Slattery in 2026, he is now only two winners shy of a half century (48) for the year. To put that in context for how quickly this operation is growing, they had 18 winners combined under both codes for the entirety of 2018 and 23 for 2019. In a short space of time, they have really taken things to another level.

Loughrea runs out an emphatic winner of the Tote Irish Cambridgeshire \ Healy Racing

What is also admirable about how the Killenaule yard operates is how young riders are supported in the early stages of their career. According to Horse Racing Ireland’s data, there are currently six apprentices signed on to the Slattery stable: apprentice championship leader Sam Coen, Orla Tynan, who has ridden more flat winners than any other female rider in Ireland this year, Adam Browne-Souza (four winners for the yard this year), Jimmy Dalton (three winners for the yard this year), Ava Maher and Feenagh Moran (both seeking first winners under rules).

Strong riders

The trainer’s son Andrew (primary rider for the yard) and nephew Ben Coen have also been among the winners for Slattery this year, as has Declan McDonogh. In short, opportunities have been afforded to plenty and the approach is very much reaping dividends.

If there is one thing that Slattery has yet to pull off this season, it’s a listed or group winner. In fairness, he has only been represented twice in group races and a handful of times in listed company. All of his runners in these grades have been double-figure prices, so a winner wasn’t necessarily to be expected.

Could that all be set to change, though? The in-form camp might now have their best chance of doing so for some time if the handicapper is right in dishing out a 12lb rise for Loughrea after his three-length Curragh success last weekend. That takes the unexposed four-year-old to a rating of 103.

He could easily be capable of better than that, as a three-time winner from just five career starts. He looks properly exciting.

After a marvellous first eight months of the year, adding a pattern success to Slatterys' haul would be a fitting reward for what is clearly an ultra-capable outfit. Hats off to them.