Wreckless Eric

The most striking thing about him is how he performs on normal ground: two wins from just four races in those conditions, meaning he wins half the time the track is riding as it should. That is an exceptional ratio, and it hints strongly that Wreckless Eric is a different proposition when the ground suits him. His two career wins came at Huntingdon in April 2024 and then at Cheltenham in November 2024 — and it is the Cheltenham win that feels most significant. Winning at Cheltenham, the sport's most famous and demanding track, marks a horse out as something a cut above the ordinary.

That said, he has not won since. Six races without a victory, and his most recent form — a seventeenth, a second, a sixth, then ninth, seventh, and twelfth — reads like a horse who has had some rough patches. His regular partner Kielan Woods has ridden him in 11 of those 13 races and won twice together, a win rate of around 1 in 6. At the top level — Class 2, among the most competitive races in Britain — he has yet to get his head in front from four attempts, which suggests he is right on the edge of that level rather than comfortably clear of it. The trainer, Jonjo O'Neill and his son A.J., run a powerful yard that has sent out 51 winners this season, so the horse is in good hands.

The team's own assessment is telling. They describe last season as one where Wreckless Eric was arguably unlucky not to win the Imperial Cup — a competitive, high-profile race — and felt that the season simply went on a little too long. The plan now is to step him over fences eventually, but the priority remains big hurdle targets like the Ladbroke and the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. He raced just yesterday, so the horse is firmly in training and live for whatever comes next.