2026/27 National Hunt season horse-by-horse guide

If the 2026 Flat season is anything to go by, then the current National Hunt campaign could be equally as exciting for all involved at Barbury Castle Stables.

It truly has been a memorable time on the turf for Alan and his team, thanks in no small part to the meteoric rise of Daiquiri Bay, who after making a triumphant return at Newmarket added further wins to his name in the Copper Horse Stakes at Royal Ascot before bagging the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap at York.

Daiquiri Bay has not been the only one to shine, with Believitanducan landing the Jenningsbet Festival Northumberland Vase at Newcastle, while Cullenagh Rainbow looks a filly full of potential judging by her recent success at Newmarket.

However, attention now turns to the National Hunt team, and while there is no Edwardstone to lead the line this season, there are plenty of others waiting in the wings to fill the void left by the four-time Grade One winner, who was retired at the end of last term.

Heading the list of those looking to take up the role as stable flag bearer is Baron Noir, who after a solid season over hurdles, will have his sights switched to fences, while Grade Two-winner Charisma Cat is another that is likely to chuck her hat in the ring for the vacant position.

Over the years Alan has enjoyed tremendous success with his juvenile hurdling team, which this season looks particularly strong with the likes of  smart Flat performers Alcarath and Spyce switching codes, along with new recruit Silver State, who has joined from the yard of Jack Channon.

And with a host of smart bumper horses, like Friendly Glance and Seven Stars, set to test their hand over hurdles this campaign, plus a clutch of exciting youngsters that have yet to take to the track, it potentially makes this season an intriguing one for Alan.

NATIONAL HUNT HORSES FOR 2026/27 CAMPAIGN

AGREYMIRACLESEEKER

“She is a progressive mare that ran in two bumpers last season. She got very badly hampered at Newton Abbot, but ran a lot better at Southwell.

“She is a big, scopey filly that has schooled well. She will go straight over hurdles now.”

ALCARATH

“He could be very exciting over hurdles. He schooled lovely over hurdles earlier this week, and he is due to run in the next week to ten days. He is a pretty decent Flat horse to switch to hurdles, and he has taken to the jumping job well.

“After his last run on the Flat in the Cambridgeshire, we just felt that it might be worth exploring going jumping with him. I’m delighted that the Highclere team have decided to go down that route with him.”

BARBURY BOY

“We have got quite a few three-year-olds going hurdling this season for a change, of which he is another one.

“He has been running well on the Flat, with the exception of two below par runs at Sandown Park.

“I was very happy with his schooling going into his debut over hurdles at Plumpton. I was delighted with him at Plumpton, and I thought he ran a great race.

“He seemed to enjoy himself and just got beat by a pretty smart horse. Bar not winning, I was really chuffed with him. We will look for a similar race to try and get his head in front next time as he seemed to love it.”

BARNSO

“He ran really well to finish fourth in the Ascot Stakes at Royal Ascot, but unfortunately he got jarred up. We will be training him to go hurdling in the second half of the season.

“He is a high-class horse that is rated well up into the nineties. Hopefully he can progress over hurdles when we see him out.”

BARON NOIR

“He ran well in both the Supreme at the Cheltenham Festival and the Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree.

“He schooled over fences earlier this week, but we are just trying to find a suitable starting point with him. I would like to stay at two miles to begin with, if we can, but he might well get two and a half miles.

“I think it will depend on where the two beginners’ chases from Exeter and Kempton Park are rescheduled.

“Failing that, there is one at Carlisle towards the end of the month. He is very exciting. He would be one of the most exciting novice chasers we have had for a year or two.”

BETTERFOREVERYONE

“This will probably be the old boy’s last season. He is in quite good form at the moment. There is a race at Hexham for him coming up, so we might head there as he likes it around there.

“You are never quite sure what he is going to do, but he usually wins a race each season. He is moving well at the moment.”

BLUE SKY DREAMING

“He had his comeback at Warwick on Tuesday, but as feared he just needed the run. He travelled, and jumped away lovely, but he just took a blow turning in, and got a bit tired from the back of the last.

“That should bring him on nicely, and he should be up to winning a little hurdle race. I can see him enjoying jumping fences further down the line.”

BLUES SINGER

“He is nearly ready to run. He schooled earlier this week and could run in a two-mile handicap hurdle at Huntingdon next week.

“We always thought a lot of him, but he was a bit fragile last season. Touchwood we have had a clean run with him at the moment. He seems to have strengthened up a lot.

“He might get further in time, but he is another one that we will start at two miles.”

CASTLE CARROCK

“He has just come back in as he had a slight problem last season. He is just back cantering away now and he would be one for the second half of the season.

“He will stay hurdling this season, but I think he will make into a lovely chaser, but there is no point doing that for a couple of months in the new year.”

CELESTIAL SEA

“She is a new filly to the yard for the Waley-Cohen family. She had a few runs in France. She had a little setback a few weeks ago, so she is just back cantering.

“I would think she would go down the line of mares’ novices’ hurdles. She is a fair way off at the moment.”

CHARISMA CAT

“She has done very well over the summer. She is a big, powerful mare now.

“It was a great plan that came together when she won the Grade Two at Newbury. We probably made too much use of her in the Grade One at Aintree, especially as it was run in a real storm.

“She turned into the home straight, in front, and ran straight into it, but she still ran a good race.

“We had her entered at Sandown Park on Sunday, but we decided to swerve that race.

“I think she has improved physically for the break so hopefully there is more to come over hurdles again this season.”

DANCE IN THE MIST

“This is a little filly that I like. She ran the other day at Stratford, but she was very green. She had never been to the sales or anything like that, so it was all a bit of a shock to her.

“There is another fillies’ juvenile bumper at Doncaster later this month so we will go there with her. I would like to think there would be a big step forward from her last run as she would have learned plenty.”

DASTAN

“He is a German-bred horse that has run on the Flat. I like him very much. He has come over from Germany, and has been working, and schooling away grand.

“He has got quite a bit of a knee action, so I think we will wait for slower ground with him. He is a nice juvenile prospect.

“He got a mile and a half on the Flat, he handles soft ground, and he has plenty of scope. He is a likeable horse.”

EMIKO

“We didn’t get her until late last season, so there was no point going novice hurdling at the back end of the spring.

“We just gave her one run in a bumper where she finished second at Hexham. She is quite a hot mare at home, but she is a better mare this season than she was last.

“She jumps great, and she will now go mares’ novice hurdling. She wants a bit of dig in the ground and two and a half miles plus.”

ERNEST GRAY

“The old boy has been in great form. He picked up a little problem the other day which meant we couldn’t run him.

“As long as we can get another run into him before the ground goes that would be great.

“He has been a great old servant, but he is on a career high mark at the moment.”

FAVOUR AND FORTUNE

“He has schooled great over fences. The plan was always to go chasing with him last season, but he had a setback in the autumn. There was no point jumping a fence in the second half of the season, so we put that on hold.

“It was a lovely run he put in at Aintree last season, and we gave him one more spin at Sandown Park over hurdles as there were no novice chases for him in May

“He is a pretty high-class individual, and I’m looking forward to starting him in the Grade Two at Aintree on Saturday.”

FRIENDLY GLANCE

“He is a lovely big horse. He won his bumper well at Doncaster, but we have always loved him.

“He is schooling away grand, but I just want proper ground to start him. He is a lovely prospect.

“I would imagine we would start him over two miles and then build him up. I prefer to start them over two miles and see where we go.”

GALAXY STAR

“She was a bit disappointing the other day on her hurdling debut at Uttoxeter. She has actually gone away for a little break as she has been on the go all summer.

“I just felt she was a bit flat at Uttoxeter. She jumped well, but turning in she was in trouble. However, we know she is better than that.”

GEORGIE TOO

“She is a lovely filly. She only had the one bumper run last season where she was beaten by Olly Murphy’s mare Merry Wood, who won the race at Uttoxeter that Galaxy Star ran in.

“I would imagine we will stay down the bumper route with her as she came in late. She is not back in strong work yet, so there is no rush with her.

“She might be one good enough to run in a better bumper at the spring festivals.

“We like her a lot, and she has done extremely well through the summer.”

GHOST DANCING

“She is just a fun little mare. She was very weak last season, but she has had a good break and has strengthened up a bit. She is well handicapped, and hopefully she will be able to do something off her current mark. She wouldn’t want real winter ground.”

“She will come on plenty for the run, but she is probably a little bit better going left-handed. If I can find some mares’ chases for her, she will win some, but I just needed to get her out.”

IT TAKES TWO

“She is a lovely mare by Nathaniel. She was second at Southwell on her second, having been fifth at Huntingdon on her debut in the race Georgie Too was second in.

“She is schooling well. She is in over hurdles at Huntingdon next week, and we could go there. I can see her getting two and a half miles plus in time.

“She is a straightforward filly that has improved well. She is only four, but she has done well for another summer on her back.”

JOHN HARRISON

“He has been a little bit disappointing on the Flat. I’m just hoping that going over hurdles can help him toughen up a bit. He will be out in the next two to three weeks.”

KITTYS GLANCE

“She has been consistent all her career. She will jump a fence in time, but I’m not sure when we will do that.”

LA KOSMOS

“She has been placed a few times on the Flat. She hasn’t schooled yet, but that is the next thing we have to do. She gets the mile and a half well on the Flat, and she handles a bit of soft ground.

“She is not the biggest, so we’ll just have to see how she takes to it. If we didn’t end up going hurdling, she should be able to win on the Flat.”

MARCUS VITRUVIUS

“He is a fine horse by Study Of Man. We loved him in the spring and we toyed with the idea of running him on the Flat, but we decided not to so he will go down the junior bumper route.

“He hasn’t been back in long, he will be out in about a month to six weeks’ time.”

MARTINI MAJESTY

“She won on her debut at Ascot last season, but we probably threw her in the deep end running her in the Grade Two bumper at Aintree as she wasn’t quite up to that.

“I probably ran her in the wrong race as that was a hot contest at Newbury. She needs dropping in grade, but she will come on a bit for the run.

“The Ascot form hasn’t quite worked out, but we will lower her sights now. Hopefully she will have learnt plenty from her outing at Newbury.”

MASACCIO

“The old boy is in great form, and we have given him an entry in the Coral Gold Cup. He was not fully ready at Newbury, but I needed to get a run into him if we had any chance of going for the Coral Gold Cup.

“I would have preferred to have gone two and a half miles with him, but I couldn’t find anything, however that would have got a good blow into him.

“It was a terrific result at Newbury. He has travelled away lovely for much of the race, and turning in he was still travelling well. I thought he was going to get tired, but he just kept finding.

“It was a great comeback, and it gives me a chance of getting him into the Coral Gold Cup, but we will have to see how he comes out of it.

“It is great to see him back though. He was good on his last start up at Ayr, and I think a race like the Coral Gold Cup should suit him.”

MASTER ROQUE

“He has been working well. He was due to run last week, but he had a bad scope. “He has been on antibiotics and will come back into strong work at the weekend.

“I would like to give him one run in a bumper and then go novice hurdling afterwards.”

MOSSY MOON

“I was pleased enough with his comeback third at Huntingdon. He was possibly a little bit unlucky not to be second as he just got stopped in his run rounding the final bend. He wouldn’t have beaten the winner, but it was a pleasing enough run.

“As he was ready, we thought we would give him a spin around there, and the experience would have done him no harm either.

“He has schooled well, so we switch him to novice hurdles now. He will start off over two miles and take it from there.”

MUSCADET

“He was a horse that I liked last season, but he was disappointing in his bumpers.

“He was very green, and a bit clueless. He has shown a lot more at home than he has so far on the track.

“He is schooling away fine so he will go novice hurdling now, but he won’t be ready to go for another three or four weeks as he came in late.”

MYTHICAL MOON

“He is back in work having missed last season. He is just starting to do a bit stronger work now, but I don’t think he will be ready until mid-December.

“He will stay hurdling I imagine this season as I don’t see any point in jumping a fence for a few months in the second half of the season.

“He has got some very good form to his name. He was second in the novices’ handicap hurdle at Sandown Park on the final day of the season when he was last seen.

“He will be a lovely chaser next season, but I think that is something we want to put on hold until then.”

NEON DREAM

“He won well on his final start at Hereford last season. He just had a little muscle pull, so he has missed a week to ten days. The vet is happy with him, but he won’t be ready for a bit.

“I would imagine that we stay hurdling with him this season.”

NEVADA SAMBA

“He is a lovely horse. He won his only start at Wincanton last season in a bumper. The plan is to give him one more run in a bumper and then go novice hurdling with him.

“I think another run in a bumper will do him good from an experience point of view. However, he was well schooled all through last winter, and this autumn.

“He is not the quickest at home, but when we go over hurdles we will start over two miles, however I can easily see him stepping up to two and a half miles quite soon.”

OUT IN DE WILD

“He was here last season, and was ready to run, but he had an epiglottic entrapment. That is usually a quick fix, but it took three operations to fix.

“He worked very well earlier this week, and he will start off at Sandown Park on Sunday. I want to give him one run in a bumper before going novice hurdling.

“He was placed in a point-to-point, and he jumps extremely well.”

OYKEL BRIDGE

“He finished third in his first two bumpers before being sent off favourite for his final one at Hereford. He got completely mullered on the home bend, and he was lucky to stand up, so you can put a line through that run. He is a great big horse that probably wants a galloping track. We could get him going at Stratford on Monday.”

PLAN C

“I was quite excited about him going hurdling, but he jumped appallingly at Warwick, having schooled great at home. We will give him a go in headgear next time to see if that works.

“It didn’t quite happen for him on the Flat, but I thought he would win at Warwick, however he never jumped a hurdle.”

POST HASTE

“He is a big, backward horse that just got very weak on me last spring. He has had a good break, and he is working much better now.

“He would be ready to start in a bumper sometime this month.”

SAXONS LANE

“Saxons Lane missed last season, but he showed a bit of promise as he was placed a couple of times the season before.

“He is a lovely long striding horse, and I’m happy with how he is moving at home.

“We have taken our time with him, and he is not ready yet, but I would like to think there is ability there.

“He is rated ninety-seven, but he should be dropped a bit having had that time off. He should have enough ability to win a handicap of that, and if all went well, he could improve for jumping a fence.”

SAXONS PRIDE

“I was happy with her comeback third at Hereford. She just took a bit of a blow, and she will be entitled to come on for the run as that was her first run since March.

“She has been given a mark of ninety-six. She has been placed in her two runs over hurdles, so should be competitive off that mark.”

SEVEN STARS

“She won well at Hereford on her debut and then ran well in the Grade Two bumper at Aintree in the spring. She was sixth there in what I thought was a very good bumper.

“She has an entry at Huntingdon next week, and we could start her off over hurdles there, but I will just see how she works over the weekend as to whether we go there.

“We will just start out low key and take things one step at a time. She will tell me if she is up to running in a Listed race.”

SILENT TEMPTATION

“She is another filly that is owned by Richard Johnson Racing. She has a bit of bumper form in Ireland, but she is a lovely filly.

“I was only just starting to get working with her about a month ago and she cut her leg. She had to have surgery after that, but it has all gone according to plan and we have just started to ride her this week.

“She will go straight over hurdles when the time comes, but we have been held up quite a bit as a result of that. Although it is early days, I like what I have seen so far.”

SILVER STATE

“He is new to the yard, having joined us from the Channon team. I bought Katchit from Mick Channon, and if he is half as good as him, we will be away.

“He has some good form from the Flat and is rated eighty-eight. He loves soft ground and was placed at the Derby meeting at Epsom Downs.

“He is doing everything right at the moment, but we will just wait for the weather to break as he wants soft ground.

“He is an interesting recruit, and we have been lucky over the years with horses we have bought from Mick.”

SKI LODGE

“He disappointed me last season. I thought he was sure to win a few races. It turned out he had a little wind problem, so he had a little wind operation.

“I just hope that is what has been stopping him. He travelled well in his races, but it didn’t seem to matter what trip we ran him over, he wasn’t getting home.

“He is a couple of weeks off a run, but I would like to see a bit of rain first. He will go down the handicap chase route.”

SLAVETOTHERHYTHM

“This is a horse that I absolutely adored at the sales 18 months ago. He showed me nothing last year, but we did a lot of work on him and turned him away.

“He is working much better this time. He will probably have one run in a bumper and then go novice hurdling.

“Talking to Anthony Bromley he said that horses by Nirvana De Berlais are often renowned for not showing much at home.

“We had big hopes for him when we got him, but it still might come as he is only four.”

SPARTAN ARMY

“He missed last year. We gave him a run at York, but he needed that badly, and he will probably need another run for fitness, but he is going to go back hurdling.

“He won’t be out for a few weeks. He did win a hurdle race, but I always thought he was a useful horse. He did very well on the all-weather a couple of years ago.”

SPYCE

“He has recently been gelded, and he started cantering this week. I’ve not schooled him yet, but, if he took to it, the plan is to go juvenile hurdling.

“I thought his time on the Flat this season was a shade disappointing but when you are running at the level he has been running at, there is no hiding place.

“We were hopeful of big things in the spring, but then we had issues with his wind, and the ground was plenty quick enough, but it wasn’t a disaster as he is still rated ninety-six.

“I’m looking forward to the first morning we go schooling with him, and hopefully he doesn’t disappoint me. He could be very good.

“I think gelding will be the making of him, and, if he doesn’t take to hurdling, I think he will be a nice horse for the Flat with him next year.”

STARS ALIGNING

“He is a lovely big horse by Passing Glance. We just gave him one run last season when he was second at Kempton Park.

“We bumped into one of Nicky’s that day called Prince Rupert, and he told me not to be disappointed.

“He has been schooling well, but him and Friendly Glance are both big, strapping horses that we will just wait for the weather to break before getting going with.”

THE HONEST BAKER

“He is a nice three-year-old by Nathaniel, who I like very much as a sire. He is working away fine, and I think my three-year-old bumper horses are quite nice, but until you run them you are not sure.

“He has been working well enough with the older horses. Richard Burton, who was a top amateur, and who I used to work with at David Nicholson’s, sent him to me.

“I’m happy with what I’ve seen at home, he seems like a flashy boy. He is the first foal out of Mrs Lovett, who was pretty good for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

“I hope he will be out sometime in November.”

TOOK YOU TWO

“He is a three-year-old by Cracksman that I bought at the Yorton sale last year. He has been working very well.

“We did have him entered at Aintree on Saturday, but we just decided to give him a little bit longer.

“He would be quite similar to The Honest Baker as they have done a lot of work together, and there wouldn’t be a lot between them.”

UHTRED RAGNARSON

“He disgraced himself at Uttoxeter the other week. He refused to jump off, but he has threatened to do that before. We will go again in a little race with him again, and hopefully he won’t perform in the same manner.”

VIVID PINK

“She has done well. She won at Market Rasen during Royal Ascot week and was fourth back there in a stronger heat last time. We have had to have her wind done, but she is back in strong work now.

“She will jump a fence at some stage, but she wouldn’t want winter ground. I hope I haven’t missed the boat with her, but she is mine, so if I have to wait for a bit then so be it.”

WAVERLEY

“He is a three-year-old that is owned by the Elite Racing Club. He was very naughty when he first arrived last year, but the more we did with him the better he became.

“We decided he wasn’t a Flat horse, so he will go down the bumper route. I’m pleased with him at the moment, and he will be out sometime in November.

“He is probably a little bit behind The Honest Baker and Took You Two fitness wise as he came in a bit later. I think he will be okay, but he has just needed a bit of craft.”

WYRLEY BIRCH

“He is a half-brother to Edwardstone. He only had one run last season, but he got colic very badly in the autumn. He ran okay at Warwick, and then we didn’t run him again. He has done really well through the summer.

“He is too old to run in another bumper so he will go novice hurdling. He is a big horse, so we have just got to be careful with the ground.”