William Munny

The problem — and the reason this horse is so fascinating — is that William Munny has talent he doesn't quite know what to do with. He's been racing too keenly, fighting his jockeys, and making jumping errors. In almost any other horse, that combination would be costing wins. Instead, he's been finishing second again and again. His recent form reads 3-2-2-1-2 going back through his last five completed runs, which means he's been knocking on the door constantly. The win finally came at Punchestown in February 2025, and Connell made the point bluntly afterwards: that day he settled, he jumped, and he barely broke a sweat doing it. That, he said, was just a workout.

Connell trains out of Nurney in Co. Kildare and has sent out 7 winners this season — a yard clearly in form. But his belief in William Munny goes beyond seasonal confidence. After a run at Naas, he said flatly that this was the best horse of his type in the country, the one everyone else would need to beat. That's a bold thing to say publicly. The Punchestown win, coming over a year after his debut success at Navan in January 2024, seemed to validate every word — Connell described it as the final piece of prep work before targeting the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham, one of the most prestigious races in the jumping calendar.

He last raced just one day ago and is very much a live, active runner. A horse who finishes in the top three in 7 of 7 career races, does it while making life difficult for himself, and still has his trainer talking about Cheltenham — that's a combination worth paying attention to.