Yippee Ki Yay

Both of those wins came in hunter chases, a specialist type of race for horses ridden by amateur jockeys, and they arrived in a neat sequence: Exeter in March 2024, then Kelso in May 2024. The Kelso victory in particular caught the eye of his trainer, who described it as a terrific performance and noticed something different about the horse around that time — a new maturity, a sense that things were clicking into place. That kind of mental growth in a horse is genuinely hard to plan for, but when it arrives, it tends to show up in the results.

His recent form reads 2-2-5-6-1, with that 1 — a win — the most recent completed result before a blank run. He raced just one day ago and is clearly still very much in action, which matters. A horse that stays sound and keeps racing at 8 is already doing something right. His two placed efforts sandwiching a win suggest he is competitive and consistent at this level, not just stealing occasional victories.

The trainer is realistic about what comes next. There is an acknowledgement that the very top end of hunter chases — where penalties for previous wins can stack up and the competition sharpens considerably — might be a stretch. But that is honest assessment, not pessimism. The fact that Yippee Ki Yay improved meaningfully from his first to his second season with the yard, and appears to be maturing further still, gives genuine reason to think there is more to come. Some horses peak early and fade; others take their time and reward patience. On the evidence so far, Yippee Ki Yay looks like the second kind.