The 2026 Ryanair Chase was captured by last year’s runner-up Heart Wood for Henry De Bromhead and Darragh O’Keeffe.
The feature race on Thursday was billed up to be a fairly straight forward result once last year’s winner Fact To File was a runner, with connections opting to skip the temptation of supplementing for the Gold Cup. However, he was a non-runner on the day due to quicker ground than ideal.
The race still provided us with an excellent spectacle as Heart Wood ran out a brilliant winner. Second went to Jonbon yet again at the Cheltenham Festival as Banbridge ran a solid race in third.
Heart Wood thrives in intermediate championship
The initial Ryanair picture was a muddling one as it was tough to pinpoint what exactly was going to run. Fact To File’s participation hinged on whether connections wanted to supplement for the Gold Cup, but as JP McManus’ Inothewayurthinkin was reportedly working back to his old self, the belief was there was no need to field two. In the end, they only fielded one in this race and it was not fact To File.
Gaelic Warrior was a notable omission, with Mullins opting to chance the Gold Cup. Twelve-time Grade 1 winner Jonbon was expected to miss Cheltenham altogether in favour of Aintree after what Nicky Henderson deemed as a tough few races. With three successive second places at the Cheltenham festival, the admirable veteran was attempting to bring the house down with this first step up in trip at Prestbury Park to suite
Impaire Et Passe was another supposedly Aintree bound, but connections were twisted late on as the 2023 Ballymore winner returned to Cheltenham for the first time since that success over Gaelic Warrior.
Heart Wood was arriving on the back of a comfortable success at Tramore in the New Year’s Day Chase as he sought to reverse the nine-length gap with Fact To File in this race last season.
That New Year’s Day Chase was won by Al Boum Photo before his two Gold Cup wins. It proved the ideal springboard for Heart Wood too, as he took centre stage in the absence of the big players.
Coasting alongside JPR One heading into the straight, the game front-runner began to fade. Heart Wood took advantage, pinged the last two fences, and won easily.
Jonbon was second at the Festival for the fourth time, ahead of former King George hero Banbridge.