Kitzbuhel

Trained by Willie Mullins at his powerhouse yard in County Carlow — a yard that has sent out 230 winners this season alone — Kitzbuhel has developed into exactly the horse his trainer hoped he might be. Mullins had flagged earlier in the season that the switch to fences could bring out something extra in him, describing him as a fine stamp of a horse who stays well and should take to chasing. He was right. Kitzbuhel has taken to it spectacularly, winning 3 of his last 6 races at the sport's top table.

The most striking of those wins came at Cheltenham in March, in the Brown Advisory — one of the most prestigious chasing races at the Festival. Kitzbuhel led from the front and simply refused to be caught, fighting off Final Demand up the famous hill in what Mullins called a hell of a performance. "I thought Final Demand would have had his measure," the trainer admitted. "What a brave performance." His jockey was equally stunned, calling him braver than himself and a phenomenal horse. That is the language people use when a horse does something they did not quite expect, even when they believed in him.

His partnership with Paul Townend, Ireland's champion jockey, has been central to the story. Together they have won 4 from 7 — roughly 4 in every 7 races they have lined up for, which borders on extraordinary at this level. Kitzbuhel also has a particular fondness for Punchestown, where he has won 2 of 4 races, and it was there that his career really began in December 2024. He followed that with a Christmas win at Kempton in a Class 1, handling the fast ground better than his trainer expected. "He gallops and stays," Mullins said simply, "and what more can you want in a racehorse?" Right now, very little.