Golden Ace

The eight-year-old, trained by Jeremy Scott at his yard in Brompton Regis, Somerset, has spent most of her career competing in Class 1 races — the biggest races in Britain — and has won 5 of those 11 attempts. That's nearly 1 in every 2 top-level races she's entered, which puts her in very rare company. Cheltenham, the most famous and demanding jumping track in the country, is where she has truly made her name: three wins from six visits, including victories at the prestigious March festival in both 2024 and 2025. When a horse keeps winning at Cheltenham, you take notice. Plenty of horses run there once and are never seen there again. Golden Ace keeps going back and keeps winning.

Her regular partner in all of this has been jockey Lorcan Williams, who has ridden her in 16 of her 19 races and won 7 of them together — a win rate of 44%. That's a genuine partnership built on familiarity, and it shows. Jeremy Scott's yard has been in fine form this season with 18 winners sent out, and Golden Ace is clearly the star of the operation. Scott has been candid about her: after a poor run at Wetherby he revealed she had scoped badly — meaning she had an airway issue — which explained the performance. She has since come right, and Scott has spoken openly about wanting to prove that last season's Champion Hurdle run wasn't a one-off, that people still underestimate what this horse is capable of.

She does have her preferences. Wet or muddy ground suits her well — two wins from three races in those conditions. On fast, dry ground she has been found a little wanting for pace, as Scott acknowledged after a run at Kempton where she performed creditably but the quick surface blunted her. She has raced just once in the last day and remains active, with a tilt at the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle apparently in mind, conditions permitting.

Recent form of 2-4-5-5-2-1 looks mixed on paper, but context matters: she is competing week in, week out against the best. When everything lines up — Cheltenham, soft ground, Lorcan Williams in the saddle — Golden Ace is as good as anything in her division.