Hipop De Loire

The career breakthrough came at Galway on 30 July 2025, jumping hurdles for the first time — and the manner of it clearly excited his trainer Nick Scholfield. The plan hadn't been to go from the front, but Hipop De Loire had other ideas, jumped slickly from fence to fence, and his jockey simply let him express himself. Scholfield, who trains out of Lambourn in Berkshire and has sent out 22 winners this season, was immediately taken with how naturally the horse took to jumping. A flat horse who switches codes and looks instantly at home over hurdles is genuinely rare, and it's clearly pointed the yard toward a new chapter for the horse.

What makes the longer-term picture interesting is that Hipop De Loire does his best work over two miles or more — 1 win from 8 races at that sort of distance, a 12% win rate — which is where Scholfield intends to keep him. He has tried his hand in Class 2 company three times without winning, and his recent form figures of a ninth and seventh suggest he's still finding his feet in this new discipline. But the Galway win was only last summer, he raced just yesterday meaning he's in active training, and the team clearly believe there's more to come as a staying hurdler. A horse good enough to hold his own in an Ebor field doesn't stop being talented just because he's learning a new job.