No Drama This End

The sequence he has put together since November 2025 is the kind of thing that makes racing people stop and pay attention. A Class 1 win at Cheltenham in November. Another at Sandown in December. Then straight back out to Newbury on 29 December, where he won the Challow Hurdle — again at the top level — giving him three elite victories from three attempts. His trainer Paul Nicholls, one of the most experienced handlers in the sport, didn't hide his excitement afterwards, saying the horse is "right up there" with the best young horses he has trained and name-dropping Denman — a genuine legend of the sport — as a comparison. That is not a name Nicholls throws around lightly.

The partnership with jockey Harry Cobden has been central to the story. The two have worked together in all six of No Drama This End's races, winning four of them — that same 67% win rate. After the Cheltenham run, where a chaotic start left them with nowhere to go among 22 runners, Cobden reported the horse felt beaten after the very first jump given his position in the field. He still finished well enough to place. The Newbury win that followed, on soft, wet ground he clearly loves — he has won all three races he has run on it — showed what he can do when the race goes to plan and Cobden is given a simple instruction: ride him like the best horse in the race.

He hasn't run for three months since that Newbury victory, but Nicholls has pointed him straight at the Cheltenham Festival — the biggest meeting of the jumping year. If the ground comes up wet, which it often does in March, he will be right at home.