Gavin Cromwell’s William Hill blog: We may have to wait until 2026 to take on ‘unbeatable’ Galopin

With 2025 just around the corner, William Hill ambassador Gavin Cromwell talks through his plans for the New Year, as well as looking back on some impressive winners from the festive period.

Christmas winners

We had a great Christmas period with some nice winners, one of which was Hello Neighbour. He actually did a lot of things wrong in the race, he was very keen and got in under a few hurdles, but still managed to win. You’d have to imagine that he’ll improve even more when things go right for him throughout the race.

The main plan for him is absolutely the Triumph Hurdle, but he’ll go to the Dublin Racing Festival before that. Hopefully that all goes well and he’ll be ready for the Cheltenham Festival.

Bioluminescence ran really well on her first run over fences. She was very good and jumped well, but I think softer ground would suit her even better. She’s one to be excited about, she’ll be staying over fences and we wouldn’t rule out the Mares’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, although that’ll depend on whether she gets soft enough ground.

We picked up a nice pot with Perceval Legallois landing the Listed Chase at Leopardstown, it was great to win a race like that. Moving forward with him we’re in the hands of the handicapper and he’s probably going to take a bit of a hike in the weights. We’ll have to see what our options are once we know his rating.

It was good to see Al Gasparo back to winning ways and you’d imagine the handicapper will have his say there as well. He could potentially go to Cheltenham for the William Hill County Hurdle, Coral Cup, or maybe even the Martin Pipe. We’ll have to see what the handicapper does first.

Fairyhouse, Wednesday

We have a few runners at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day, starting with Mickie Angel in the 3m½f Handicap Hurdle (1.50pm). I think 104 is a workable mark for him and the step up in trip will be a big help. Hopefully he can be competitive.

We have two runners in the John & Chich Fowler (2.25pm) and this is a race we’ve had in mind for Limerick Lace for a while. We were disappointed with her performance the last day, but hopefully she’ll be better for that run. On ratings she should be winning the race, we’re hoping she’ll run well back in mares-only company and she’s been in great form at home so I’ve got no excuses for her.

Malina Girl is our other runner in the race. She seems in good enough form but I suppose she’ll only really have a place chance here. It’d be nice to pick up some more black type with here.

Now Is The Hour is declared in a Beginners Chase both here (3.00pm) and at Punchestown (Tuesday, 12.35pm), which race he goes in will really just depend on the ground. There’s some rain forecast but there’s still a bit of good ground in the description at both tracks, but we’d prefer it soft. He’s a Grade 2 winner over hurdles and we’re hoping he’ll turn into a nice chaser.

Into the new year

Looking ahead to the new year, we have a lot of nice horses who we hope will feature in some big races. Inothewayurthinkin was our Gold Cup horse and he ran well in the Savills Chase, but he’d have to improve an awful lot to be competitive with Galopin Des Champs – he was very good.

He is open to improvement and we’ll have to see how things shape up between now and then. We walked away from Leopardstown feeling as though Galopin Des Champs looks almost unbeatable right now, but Inothewayurthinkin is a young, up and coming horse so if it’s not to be this year then hopefully we can improve to take him on the year after.

Bottler’secret hasn’t had the season we’d hoped for and putting the blinkers on him for the first time didn’t seem to help as he ran poorly the last day. We worked him in them at home and he worked well, but it just didn’t pay off on the day. He’s a real head scratcher because his work has been good at home, but he’s not put his best foot forward out on the track. It’s hard to nail down a long-term target for him at the moment.

Only By Night put in some impressive performances in 2024 and she’s got an entry in the Grade 2 Novice Chase at Naas on Sunday (1.25pm). We’ll take a look at that and potentially a Graded Mares Chase at Thurles later in the month. Her next run will tell us a lot, but the Mares Chase at the Cheltenham Festival is the obvious target.

Perceval Legallois was obviously impressive over the Christmas period, but a horse last seen finishing ahead of him was Yeah Man. He’ll go to Gowran Park for the Grade 3 Thyestes Chase, that’s his main target so we’ll see how that goes and then go from there.

The plan for Total Look is still the Cheltenham Festival, but he’ll have to brush up on his jumping based on his run there earlier this month so he’ll have another run between now and the Festival. I don’t think he’s shaping to be a Triumph horse; he could be one for the Boodles.

On the Flat, Snellen picked up a really nice win over in Bahrain. She’s going to run again on Friday in a similar handicap to the one she won last time out and she’ll stay in the Middle East until March.

And a word on Flooring Porter, we’re happy with him at home at the moment and he’s on target for a comeback later in the New Year.