Kiss Will

The headline moment came at Perth on 23 April 2025, when Kiss Will won a Class 1 race — one of the very best races in Britain. To put that in context, a six-year-old with only a handful of races under its belt stepping up and winning at the highest level is not something you see every day. First-time winners at that grade are usually horses that have been carefully prepared over a long career. Kiss Will did it in its sixth race. The earlier win had come at Fairyhouse in January 2025, so within the space of a few months, this horse went from a first career victory to landing a top-tier prize.

The form figures tell a pleasing story too. Reading them from oldest to most recent — 1, 7, 1, 3, 2, 5 — you can see a horse that started well, had one flat day, then found its best form right when it mattered most. Two wins and never out of the places in the other starts. The one blip, a seventh-place finish, looks like an outlier rather than a pattern.

Behind all of this is the yard of W P Mullins, based in Co Carlow, which has sent out 237 winners in the current season alone. That is a staggering number — a rate of production that puts Mullins in a category of his own among trainers. When a horse from that operation wins a Class 1 race this early in its career, it tends to mean the team believe there is considerably more to come. Kiss Will last raced 17 days ago and is currently active, so whatever comes next is likely to arrive soon. On the evidence so far, it would be unwise to look past it.