The Big Clubman

That Navan run is the detail worth pausing on. A Grade 3 is serious company, and the fact that a horse needed to be ridden with a slap down the shoulder after a few hurdles — suggesting it was getting a little lazy or needed reminding to keep working — and still stayed on strongly enough to finish second tells you something about its engine. Nolan noticed it too, and the conversation in the yard has already moved to Cheltenham, with the Albert Bartlett — a top-level race for staying novices — mentioned as a possible target. That is not the kind of ambition you attach to a horse you are not genuinely excited about.

The win itself came at Wexford in October 2025, a track that sits in Nolan's home county and where the team clearly knew exactly what they were doing. The jockey's account from that day is revealing: the horse was still a little green, the pace was sharper than ideal, and yet once the race turned uphill, it picked up and won. That combination — greenness, a testing pace, and still finding more up the hill — is the calling card of a horse with something in reserve. Point-to-point experience gave it the jumping foundation, and the trainer believes there is meaningful improvement still to come, particularly over longer distances.

Nolan's yard has sent out 22 winners this season, so this is not a small operation hoping for a lucky break. With The Big Clubman still active and that Cheltenham conversation already underway, the next few months will tell us whether the ambition is matched by the ability — but the evidence so far gives genuine reason to watch.