The Real Whacker

The résumé is striking. A Class 1 win at Cheltenham in November 2022 was followed by another at Cheltenham on New Year's Day 2023, then a third at the Festival in March 2023. That is three top-level wins in the space of four months, all at a track where he has now won 3 of his 9 visits — a remarkable record at a course that finds out plenty of horses who look good elsewhere. His most recent win came at Wetherby in November 2024, another Class 1, taking his total to five career victories worth listening to.

The key to unlocking The Real Whacker is the ground. On wet or muddy ground he has won 3 of 6 races — half the time. That is a dominant record. Neville has been candid about the frustration: "Every time we went to run him, the sky opened the night before," he said after the Wetherby win, which sounds counterintuitive until you realise the problem was not enough rain on the days that mattered. When conditions finally came right at Wetherby, the horse won a Grade 1. Before that, a promising run in Ireland ended when he unseated his jockey at a fence — hardly a form collapse. Neville never stopped believing in him.

Regular partner Sam Twiston-Davies has won 2 of their 8 races together — roughly 1 in every 4 — and the combination remains intact. The last six runs have brought no wins, and it is now 18 months since that Wetherby success, but Neville has flagged the King George, the Cotswold Chase, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup as targets. Given what this horse has already done at Cheltenham, that is not idle ambition. He has already won there three times. If the rain comes, he is the kind of horse you want to be watching.