Jango Baie

The headline achievement so far is a Class 1 win at Cheltenham in March 2025 — the Cheltenham Festival, the sport's equivalent of the Champions League final. Add to that a second Class 1 win at Ascot in November 2025, plus a win at Aintree just this week, and you have a horse who keeps showing up on the biggest stages and delivering. At Cheltenham specifically, Jango Baie has won 2 of his 3 visits, which puts him in rare company at a track that has a habit of finding horses out. Nicky Henderson, one of the most successful trainers in the country — his yard has sent out 85 winners already this season — has said the horse does everything asked of him and goes into top races in great shape.

Jockey Nico de Boinville has been in the saddle for most of this partnership, riding together 9 times and winning 4 of them — roughly 1 in every 2 races together. That is the kind of combination that builds trust, and it shows in how consistently Jango Baie performs. His last six races read 1-2-4-1-3-1, meaning he has won 3 of them and finished out of the top three just once.

Henderson has made no secret of the fact that he believes this horse belongs at the very top level. After a strong run at Kempton he pointed squarely towards the Gold Cup, noting that Jango Baie has stamina to spare and that a stiffer, more demanding track should suit him even better. He also noted that the horse's Cheltenham win came over a shorter trip than ideal, yet he still produced the goods — suggesting there may be even more to come when conditions fully suit. At just seven years old, he is still relatively young for a top-level chaser, which means the yard are not just looking back at what he has achieved. They are already thinking about coming back and doing it again.