Daddy Long Legs

He is trained by the legendary Willie Mullins, whose yard at Muine Bheag in Co Carlow has sent out 215 winners already this season alone. That figure is almost absurd — it means Mullins is producing winners at a rate that most stables could only dream of across an entire career. For a horse to earn a place in that operation, and to keep it, tells you something. Daddy Long Legs has done exactly that.

His partnership with jockey Paul Townend is one of the most eye-catching aspects of his profile. In eight races together, Townend has steered him to four wins — that's winning half the time they team up. For context, most horses win roughly 1 in every 5 or 6 races with their regular jockey. Winning 4 from 8 is a genuine partnership, not a coincidence.

Ground conditions matter enormously with this horse, and here's the key insight: he is almost a different animal depending on the surface. On wet, muddy ground he has won just 2 from 3 races, but more striking is what the team say about his preference. Assistant trainer David Casey put it plainly after a win at Tipperary — flat track, fast ground, and suddenly Daddy Long Legs looked like a graded-class horse. Willie Mullins was even more direct after Punchestown, suggesting the horse looked so quick in the right conditions he could potentially go back to flat racing entirely. That is not something you hear about many horses who began winning over jumps.

His most recent victory came at Ballinrobe in late May 2026, just six weeks ago, and with a race as recently as yesterday he is clearly in a busy spell. The team are ambitious but honest about where the ceiling might be — graded races are now the target, and whether he belongs at the very top level remains the question. He may not be a Grade 1 certainty, but a horse who wins 1 in every 4 races and makes champion jockeys look this comfortable is well worth watching.