Hewick

His career record reads eight wins and 14 places from 26 races, a win rate of roughly 1 in every 3 outings (31%), which is a genuinely strong return at the level he operates. And the level matters here: three of those wins have come in Class 1 races — the very top tier of British jump racing — including two at Sandown and one at Kempton on Boxing Day 2023. A horse that wins 1 in every 3 races against the best in the country is not lucky. He is good.

What makes Hewick particularly striking is how he performs on normal ground. In those conditions, he has won 6 of his 9 races — two out of every three — which is a remarkable conversion rate for a horse operating this high up. His trainer Shark Hanlon, based in County Carlow, has been deliberately more selective with him after a previous season of running him everywhere, and that discipline seems to be paying off. Hanlon's yard has sent out 11 winners this season, and Hewick remains its most decorated name. The trainer has spoken openly about the Cheltenham Gold Cup as the main target, and the fact that he believes a horse this age has a genuine crack at it says everything about where Hewick's head is right now.

The partnership with jockey Jordan Gainford tells its own story: 3 wins from 12 races together, or 1 in every 4 rides, and Gainford has been effusive about what it feels like in the saddle. At Aintree, he described getting a full circuit of education from the horse before Hewick simply figured the fences out himself and started attacking them. That image — an 11-year-old horse learning on the job mid-race — is not what decline looks like. Hanlon put it simply after Hewick's most recent win at Thurles in October 2025, just seven months ago: "It's like he's getting better." With a horse this age, that sentence should not be possible. Apparently nobody told Hewick.