Jingko Blue

His journey to the top has not been entirely smooth. After winning a Grade 2 race at Windsor in January 2025, the plan was to aim him at the Cheltenham Festival via the Reynoldstown Chase at Ascot — but that day went badly wrong. He made a serious jumping error coming downhill and that was effectively the end of his season. It then emerged why: he had been suffering from kissing spines, a painful back condition that required surgery. That is the kind of thing that ends careers, or at least derails them badly, so the fact that he has come back and won at Sandown Park just this week — his most recent race, run only a day ago — says a great deal about how well his recovery has gone.

Henderson has been candid about the fact that Jingko Blue is not the most straightforward horse to handle. When he is right, he is very talented — but getting him to that point consistently has been the challenge. His jumping over fences has been a question mark at times, yet when things click, the results speak for themselves. At Cheltenham, jockey James Bowen effectively threw away the tactical plan and led from the front, which is not what was intended — but it worked brilliantly, and the horse relished it.

Nico de Boinville, one of the sport's leading jump jockeys, is his most regular partner and together they have won 3 of their 6 races — exactly half. That is an unusually productive partnership. Henderson's yard has sent out 85 winners already this season, so Jingko Blue is operating in a very busy, very successful environment. With a Class 1 win already on his record, a full recovery from back surgery, and a win just days ago, the horse appears to be in the form of his life at precisely the right time.