Three Card Brag

That moment arrived at Cheltenham in October 2025, when Three Card Brag won a top-level Class 2 race. For Elliott — whose yard has sent out a staggering 210 winners this season alone — it was a satisfying result, not least because the horse had been nudging the door of these big races for years without quite breaking through. "He'd been knocking on the door in those big handicaps for a long time," Elliott said afterwards. Part of the problem was the horse's own consistency: every decent run nudged him up the weights, making the next race harder. Winning, paradoxically, becomes more difficult the better you perform.

One thing that clearly helps Three Card Brag is a wet afternoon. On soft or heavy, rain-soaked ground he has won 2 of just 3 races — a 67% record that is extraordinary and tells you something important: when the ground is heavy and testing, this horse thrives where others tire. His jockey Jack Kennedy, who has ridden him six times together for 1 win, noted after Cheltenham that the horse simply jumped and travelled beautifully all afternoon.

There is one unfinished chapter worth noting. Three Card Brag ran in the Grand National at Aintree, one of the most famous races in the world, and jockey Sean Bowen described a horse almost too enthusiastic for his own good — jumping so fluently he kept pulling into the bridle, doing far too much work early on and ultimately running out of fuel. "Hopefully back next year, older and wiser," Bowen said. That one line might be the best summary of this horse: talented, bold, and still figuring out when to save something for the finish.