Skyjack Hijack

The most eye-catching chapter of his story came on fast, dry ground at Newcastle in November 2024, when he won a top-two-level race by nine and a half lengths. That is not a photo finish — that is a horse toying with the opposition. Jockey Sean Quinlan, who rides him more than anyone else, described his jumping as reminding him of a Champion Hurdle horse: quick, clean, and relentless. For a horse who only found his feet at a small summer track in Cartmel months earlier, that comparison tells you something has clicked in a serious way.

Trainer Jennie Candlish, based in Staffs, has had a productive season — 61 winners sent out from her yard — but Skyjack Hijack sounds like one she talks about differently. His performances on fast ground in particular seem to have unlocked something, and the plan after Newcastle was to target the River Don Hurdle at Doncaster, a three-mile race, before a tilt at Cheltenham. A trip to Cheltenham came and went without the same spark — Candlish was candid that it might have been one run too many and that the track perhaps did not suit him — but that honesty, and her willingness to say Aintree might be a better fit, suggests she knows exactly what she has here and is not going to waste it.

He last raced just a day ago, so his story is very much still being written. His record at Class 3 level — winning 2 from 3, or 67% of those races — hints that he might have more to prove at the very top level, but the horse who wins by nine lengths on a cold November day at Newcastle is not one to dismiss lightly.