Ross O'Sullivan: five to note for the 2025/26 Jump season

These are exciting times for Ross O’Sullivan. On the final day of the 2025 turf season last Sunday, he bagged the first Group race win of his career on the Flat when Chally Chute danced to victory in the Loughbrown Stakes at The Curragh.  As well as that, the 2024/25 National Hunt season was his most successful campaign over jumps by some way.  

Fred Winter runner-up Eagles Reign won the Lartigue Hurdle at Listowel last season and Switch From Diesel won the Listed Total Enjoyment Mares’ Bumper at Fairyhouse.  Talk In The Park won two, Donnie Devito won two and Ceanndana won three.

That momentum has continued through the early throes of this season, with Strong Link completing a hat-trick of wins when he landed a novices’ hurdle at the Galway Festival, and Bythesametoken winning a valuable handicap chase at the Listowel Festival.  Ten winners are already on the board in the 2025/26 National Hunt season and there is lots to look forward to for the year ahead.

We were delighted with her at The Curragh on Sunday (see replay above) when she just got up on the line to win her maiden on her first run on the Flat.

Her bumper form from last season is rock solid; she finished second to Bambino Fever at Leopardstown and at Punchestown, and she won a Listed bumper at Fairyhouse.  We’re hoping that she can progress from that now over hurdles this season.

She has taken well to jumping; her schooling has been good.  The plan, all going well, is to go for a mares’ maiden hurdle over two miles at Navan on Sunday week, so hopefully she can go well there.

We were very happy with his run in an academy hurdle at Fairyhouse there on Tuesday.  He was beaten by a horse of John Nallen’s who appears to be highly-regarded and he had another well-regarded horse of Gordon Elliott’s back in third place.

He was showing us plenty at home and I loved the way that he travelled and jumped.  We have lots of options with him now, he can go back for a bumper or he can go to a juvenile hurdle.  He is a horse who has plenty of size and scope and who has a nice pedigree - he is out of a half-sister to Brametot, a French Guineas and French Derby winner.  We’re looking forward to seeing how he progresses now.

He was second in a four-year-olds’ point-to-point for Jamie Codd and he came well recommended by Jamie.  Strong Link came via the same route and that is obviously working out well.  

He’ll probably start off for us in a bumper in a couple of weeks.  He’s a nicely bred horse, his dam is a half-sister to Farmer Jack, who won a Racing Post Chase and an Aon Chase, and he has a great attitude.  We like him.

He ran very well in the Munster National at Limerick three weeks ago.  He probably didn’t get home with the three-mile trip probably just stretching him. He weakened from the second last, but we were delighted with his run.

He has won twice over two miles and six furlongs over hurdles, but we’ll look to drop him back a little bit in trip now to two miles and five furlongs over fences.  He’s only seven and hopefully he can continue to progress.

We were delighted with his maiden hurdle win at Thurles two weeks ago.  We thought that the step up in trip would suit him and he seemed to win with a little bit in hand.  He provided Shane Markey with his first winners, which was great.

We hope that he will progress from that now, he’s only five and that was just his fifth run over hurdles.  He’s a nicely-bred horse too, his dam is a half-sister to Best Mate.  Three miles is his trip and we hope that he can improve again now when he steps up to that distance.