Twig

The headline result is hard to argue with: a Class 1 win at Aintree in December 2025, which puts him among the elite tier of horses in British racing. Those top races are the ones that matter most, the equivalent of a Grand Slam final rather than a club match, and Twig got the job done. His trainer Ben Pauling was effusive afterwards, saying Twig "ran a blinder" and "jumped for fun" — high praise for a horse who, at his age, might have been expected to be slowing down. His regular jockey Beau Morgan has been aboard for all 9 wins from their 21 races together, a partnership that clearly works.

The most recent campaign has been a story in two halves. Twig finished fifteenth and seventh in his first two runs of the last six — he was clearly not at his peak — but then reeled off back-to-back top-level wins at Sandown and Aintree. Pauling has been candid about the Grand National not quite suiting him: Twig finished tenth, and his trainer admitted they "went a million miles an hour" from the start and the horse never really got into it. But tenth in the National is still something most horses can only dream of.

One of the quietly fascinating details in Twig's record is his love for Uttoxeter. He has won 2 of his 3 races there — that is two from three at a track where many good horses never get comfortable. It is the kind of statistic that suggests a genuine affinity with the place, not a fluke.

Pauling has been talking about veterans' chases and possibly another tilt at the Becher Chase, which is run over the National fences themselves. For a horse of Twig's age and record, that is not a consolation plan — that is a horse being pointed at races he can genuinely win. He last raced just yesterday, which tells you everything about where his form is right now.