Will The Wise

The most striking thing about Will The Wise is what he does when the weather turns nasty. On wet or muddy ground, he has won 2 of his 3 races — a 67% win rate that is frankly extraordinary. Most horses find heavy conditions a grind; this one seems to feed off them. Trainer Gavin Cromwell admitted after one run at Naas that he wasn't even sure Will The Wise would handle the ground that day, and was braced for him to come up empty at the last fence. Instead, the horse dug deep. That kind of resilience is hard to manufacture.

Cromwell's yard in Navan, Co. Meath has been in fine form this season — 98 winners sent out is a serious body of work — and Will The Wise is part of why. His regular partner is jockey Keith Donoghue, who has won 2 of their 9 races together, a rate of roughly 1 in every 4 and a half. After a run at Cheltenham where they finished second, Donoghue was disarmingly honest: no excuses, they just met a better horse on the day. That kind of clear-eyed assessment suggests a team that knows exactly what they have.

And what they have, apparently, is a fast jumper who doesn't want to be asked to go too far. Cromwell was candid about that too — yes, Will The Wise has won over nearly three miles, but he over-travels, uses too much energy too soon, and is better suited to two and a half miles over fences. It's a small detail that tells you a lot about how carefully this horse is managed.

His recent form reads 1-2-2-10-4-1, which includes a win at Aintree just this week — arguably one of the most storied venues in jump racing. He first got off the mark at Punchestown in May 2024, and he's won twice there in three attempts, making it something of a happy hunting ground. A horse who travels well in the mud, rises to big occasions, and is still winning races at seven — Will The Wise is very much one to follow.