Heart Wood won the 2026 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham this afternoon, giving Henry de Bromhead his first winner of this year’s Festival. Jonbon, stepping up from two miles, couldn’t land the blow, and the absence of last year’s winner Fact To File — withdrawn on the morning of the race — reshaped the whole contest.
It was a result most people didn’t see coming. But if you’d been tracking de Bromhead’s record in this specific race, you might have.
The Same Horse, A Different Race
Twelve months ago, Heart Wood lined up in this exact race at 18/1 and finished second, beaten nine lengths by Fact To File. Nine lengths is a serious margin in a Grade 1 chase. It’s not the kind of gap that screams “winner next year.”
But we pulled Heart Wood’s full career record from our database, and the progression tells a different story. He won a Grade 3 handicap chase at Leopardstown in February 2024 by fourteen lengths, carrying 10st 12lb. He then ran well in the Grade 1 Mildmay at Aintree, finishing third beaten just over a length behind a high-class field. By autumn 2024, he was winning a Listed chase at Wexford by seven lengths, then finishing a neck behind the useful Doyen Breed in the Drinmore at Fairyhouse.
His Ryanair run last year wasn’t a fluke. He was an improving chaser who ran into a very good horse on the day. With Fact To File out of the picture this time around, the landscape shifted in his favour.
What’s interesting is the New Year’s Day run at Tramore. He won a Grade 3 by eight and a half lengths on soft ground, then wasn’t seen again until today. De Bromhead clearly had this date circled. Trainers who hide their cards for Cheltenham aren’t doing anything new, but the ones who pull it off consistently deserve credit.
De Bromhead’s Ryanair Record
Here’s a stat that might surprise you. Since 2018, Henry de Bromhead has won the Ryanair Chase three times:
| Year | Horse | SP | Jockey |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Balko Des Flos | 8/1 | Davy Russell |
| 2023 | Envoi Allen | 13/2 | Rachael Blackmore |
| 2026 | Heart Wood | — | Darragh O’Keeffe |
Three winners from nine runnings. Only Willie Mullins — with Allaho twice, Min, Vautour and Un De Sceaux — has more. But Mullins enters platoons. De Bromhead does it with different horses, brought to their peak at precisely the right moment.
And there’s a subplot with Envoi Allen that reinforces the point. De Bromhead ran him in three consecutive Ryanairs: first in 2023, second in 2024, third in 2025. A gradual decline, but three straight placed efforts in a championship race with the same horse tells you the yard understands the demands of this particular contest.
The Jonbon Question
Jonbon’s defeat will get plenty of airtime, so it’s worth putting his record in context. We counted his 28 career starts, and a pattern emerges: he’s finished second an awful lot.
Second in the 2022 Supreme behind Constitution Hill, beaten 22 lengths. Second in the 2023 Arkle, beaten five and a half lengths. Second in the 2025 Champion Chase behind Il Etait Temps, beaten eighteen lengths. Second in the Tingle Creek, second in the Shloer, second in the Celebration Chase.
His wins tend to come when the opposition isn’t at its strongest. The Clarence House at Ascot, the Melling at Aintree, small-field Grade 1s where class gets you home. When the heat is really on — a deep Cheltenham Festival field with the roar of the crowd — Jonbon has repeatedly come up short.
Stepping up to two and a half miles for the Ryanair was always going to ask a question. His two career runs beyond two miles — both Ascot Chases — produced a win, but that’s a flat, galloping track with typically weak fields. Cheltenham’s undulations and the Ryanair’s pace are a different proposition entirely.
What the Ryanair Keeps Telling Us
The favourite has won the Ryanair Chase eight times in the last twenty runnings. Which sounds reasonable until you realise that means the market leader has been beaten twelve times — including Shishkin at 1/1 in 2023, Un De Sceaux at 8/11 in 2018, Voy Por Ustedes at 4/5 in 2009, and Footpad at 7/2 who trailed home eighth in 2019.
It’s a race that consistently rewards horses who’ve been there before over raw talent stepping into the unknown. Albertas Run won it back-to-back in 2010-11. Allaho did the same in 2021-22. Frodon finished fifth in 2018, then won it in 2019. Heart Wood followed the same script — second last year, first this year.
If you’re looking for a betting angle for next year’s Ryanair, that’s probably it. Look at who finishes in the first four this year, particularly any who were making their Ryanair debut. The race rewards experience.
As for de Bromhead, his 2026 Festival might be just getting started. He won the Gold Cup with A Plus Tard in 2022, the Champion Hurdle with Honeysuckle three times, and has racked up 21 Festival winners in our database going back to 2010. The Ryanair is becoming his signature race — and today Heart Wood proved that last year’s runner-up was always going to come back for more.