Ballybow

The horse announced himself properly at Sligo in October 2024, and then stepped up to win a Grade 3 race at Clonmel in February 2025 — Grade 3 being one of the better quality races in the calendar, a genuine indication that this is not a horse just filling out numbers. Elliott was quick to point out after Clonmel that what impressed him most was the attitude: Ballybow dropped his head and kept fighting, which is often more telling than raw speed. Horses that show that kind of grit tend to keep turning up.

After Clonmel, the team aimed high and took a shot at the Albert Bartlett — one of the most prestigious races at the Cheltenham Festival, a proper Grade 1 occasion and about as big as it gets in jump racing. It did not work out, and his last six runs have produced a sequence of 5-5-9-9-4 and then a blank, suggesting he has found things tougher at that level. That is no disgrace — Cheltenham can expose horses as much as it makes them.

What makes this profile interesting right now is what comes next. Elliott has been open about his thinking: he believes Ballybow will look like a different animal once he switches to chasing — racing over fences rather than hurdles — and is waiting for a spell of wet weather to bring that plan to life. The rider's observation after Naas that the horse loves soft, wet conditions ties directly into that. Elliott is essentially saying the hurdles chapter may have run its course, and that the real Ballybow story is still to be written. Racing over fences is a bigger, more demanding test, but it can also unlock horses who were always a touch too physical and powerful for the smaller obstacles. At seven, with that Grade 3 on the record and a trainer who clearly believes in him, Ballybow is one rainstorm away from a new beginning.