Proactif

Both victories have come at Fairyhouse, the first in January 2026 and the most recent just last week in April. Winning twice at the same track so early in a career is worth noting — some horses simply take to a particular course, and Fairyhouse appears to suit Proactif down to the ground. The one blip in his form — a ninth-place finish sandwiched between those two wins — barely dents the picture. He came back from it and won again, which is exactly what you want to see from a young horse still learning the job.

The team behind him is as strong as it gets. His trainer, Willie Mullins, operates out of Muine Bheag in County Carlow and has sent out 230 winners already this season — a number that puts his yard in a different stratosphere from almost every other operation in training. When a horse catches the eye of a yard running at that volume, it says something. And this one clearly has. After the Fairyhouse win, the owner's racing manager Frank Berry was in warm mood: Proactif jumped well, galloped strongly, and even with a rival pressing him approaching the final fence, he found more and got to the line with something left. "A real nice horse," was the verdict — understated, but from that team, high praise.

What makes the picture particularly intriguing is where this horse might be heading. Mullins was understood to be keeping a close eye on a major race at the Cheltenham Festival — one of the premier events in jump racing — as a potential target, and spoke in February about there being a significant gap between Proactif and other horses in the conversation for that race. That kind of confidence, expressed quietly and early, tends to mean something when it comes from a trainer who has been around long enough to know the difference between a good horse and a very good horse. Proactif is currently active and, touch wood, the big days lie ahead.