If you were drawing up a profile of the modern Irish Grand National winner, Soldier In Milan would tick a surprising number of boxes for a horse with so few miles on the clock.
A lightly raced seven‑year‑old novice chaser with stamina in his pedigree, a shrewd trainer who lives for targets, and an in‑form jockey who knows him inside out; it is not hard to see why some good judges are edging him from “interesting” into “serious contender” territory.
Soldier In Milan’s story starts, as so many modern staying chasers do, between the flags. A winner of an Irish point‑to‑point, he showed from the outset that galloping was his natural game.
He bypassed hurdles and had a tentative chasing start, pulling up on his first outing to Leopardstown in December 2025.
When he did finally appear under Rules, Mullins didn’t hide him. Soldier In Milan turned up at the Punchestown Festival (May 2025) and duly won his bumper, seeing off King Rasko Grey, who has since gone on to win the Turners Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham.
That Punchestown success convinced connections there was little point spending a season hurdling; the plan instead was to go straight over fences.
Learning Quickly Over Fences
That bold route is partly why Soldier In Milan still feels like a bit of a secret. Instead of racking up a string of novice hurdles, he was thrown into the deep end in beginners’ and novice chases.
His first chasing start at Leopardstown did not go to plan, and he was pulled up, which, in hindsight, was more of a lesson than any kind of verdict on his ability.
What came next was more instructive. At Gowran Park in January, over 2m4f on heavy ground, he jumped the last in front and was beaten only half a length in a blanket finish, officially fourth but in reality right in the thick of it.
The breakthrough came at Punchestown on 15 February, when Soldier In Milan got off the mark over fences in a 2m7f beginners’ chase run on heavy ground. Ridden positively by Donagh Meyler, he stayed on strongly to beat Willie Mullins’ Kiss Will, with the pair pulling 16 lengths clear of the third.
His latest start, a fourth in the Grade 3 Pierce Molony Memorial Novice Chase at Thurles on 5 March, was less visually striking but arguably just as encouraging for Fairyhouse.
Meyler came out of that run bullish, stressing that the race shape didn’t suit and that the horse would come forward again for the National.
The 2026 Irish Grand National Beckons
The Irish Grand National at 3m5f around Fairyhouse demands a complex mix of attributes: stamina, jumping, the ability to hold a position in a throng, and enough class not to be flat out three fences after the stands.
Winning a Punchestown Festival bumper over 2m3f, then a three‑mile beginners’ chase on heavy ground, points squarely towards a horse who improves the further he goes.
His Thurles run suggests he can also cope when the gallop is less relentless, though the sense persists that an end‑to‑end test is where he will look his best.
Then we have his jumping. Apart from that initial blip at Leopardstown, Soldier In Milan has looked a sound, economical jumper, with Gowran and Punchestown both showing him standing up well to pressure late on. For Fairyhouse’s 24‑fence marathon, that reliability matters more than flashiness over one or two obstacles.
With just a handful of runs under Rules, and only a small number of chase starts, the handicapper is still working him out; he arrives at Fairyhouse with a mark of 142 and carries 11-00, which is a little on the high side but can be easily overcome.
Emmet Mullins’ New National Project
Mention Emmet Mullins and “National” in the same sentence, and most people still jump straight to Noble Yeats and that surreal 2022 Aintree success.
That day, under Sam Waley‑Cohen, confirmed Mullins as a trainer who can build a campaign around one race and land it with sniper‑like precision.
What is striking is that, despite his appetite for staying chases and handicaps, this will be his first runner in the Irish Grand National. Mullins has been open about the reason: he simply did not feel he had the right horse – until now.
So, can Soldier In Milan end up being not just Mullins’ first ever runner in the Irish Grand National but also his first winner in it as well?
Will Experience Count Against Him?
Of course, for every romantic National story, there are a dozen “what‑ifs” left in the Fairyhouse mud. Soldier In Milan is not a shoo-in, and there are some fairly obvious caveats.
The biggest is experience. He will walk into the cauldron of a 30‑runner, 3m5f Irish Grand National having had only a handful of chase starts, and only one run in a Graded race.
Fairyhouse’s fences might be fair, but they are also unrelenting, and there is no substitute for battle‑hardened experience when the race starts to unfold from the second circuit.
His profile also leans heavily on promise rather than proven top‑class chase form. Beating Kiss Will in a beginners’ chase and running well in novice company is one thing; mixing it with hardened handicappers, some of whom are already proven at National trip or in big festivals, is another.
And then there is the simple fact that the Irish Grand National is brutally competitive. Soldier In Milan was sitting fourth in the betting behind a trio headed by The Jukebox Kid and Willie Mullins’ pair Argento Boy and Kiss Will, all with their own compelling cases.
However, punters have caught on to his potential, and he could now potentially go off as the race favourite!
Overall Verdict
Strip it all back and Soldier In Milan is exactly the kind of horse you want on your side going into an Irish Grand National: unexposed, on an upward curve, bred for the job, and trained by a man who rarely turns up at these races for the fresh air.
His point‑to‑point grounding, Punchestown bumper win, improving novice chase form, and attractive handicap mark all point in the same direction – that Fairyhouse on April 6th might be arriving at just the right time in his development.
He still has questions to answer about experience, trip, and the white‑hot pressure of a National, and those looking for a stone‑cold certainty are fishing in the wrong race.
But as a horse we should all be paying much closer attention to, Soldier In Milan makes a persuasive, quietly exciting case – the sort that feels very Emmet Mullins.
BETFRED
