Sa Majeste

His record reads three wins and seven places from those 17 races, which works out to roughly 1 in every 6 races won (18%). That is a decent return, though the wins have come in fits and starts. The first came at Limerick on 27 December 2023, and the most recent at Fairyhouse in February 2025 — meaning he has now gone six races without winning, a run stretching back fifteen months. The recent form figures tell a similar story: a couple of third-place finishes sandwiched between some disappointing outings. Competitive, but not quite getting his nose in front.

What gives this profile some genuine shape is the trainer. W P Mullins, based at Muine Bheag in Co Carlow, is essentially the gold standard of jumping trainers in Ireland and Britain — a yard that has sent out 220 winners already this season alone. When a trainer of that calibre talks about a horse picking up a big race, it is worth listening. Mullins has pointed to some of the major staying chases over the coming months as targets, noting that Sa Majeste ran well enough in the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival — one of the most competitive and prestigious staying chases of the jumping season — and that there is more to come from a horse who has had a relatively light career so far.

That is the key thread here. Seventeen races at eight years old is a short CV for a jumper. Some horses this age are already winding down; Sa Majeste is still being pointed at big days. The trainer's view is that he is still on the way up rather than the way down, and with a Cheltenham Festival run already on his record and serious targets ahead, there is a reasonable argument that the best chapters of this horse's story may not have been written yet.