Carefully Selected

The career of Carefully Selected hasn’t been without hiccups, he’s spent a lot of time on the sidelines due to injury, missing almost an entire season early in his career and then missing two more seasons after his novice chasing campaign.

For that reason, we’ll never know what could have been for the horse, who knows where he would have been with a little more experience under his belt and more time to perfect his jumping. Having said that, it’s still been good from the Willie Mullins runner, who was foaled in 2012.

As a chaser, the further Carefully Selected ran over, the better he looked, and that led him to run at distances of three miles or more, something that would eventually put him on the Grand National path, a race he first visited in 2023.

Full Results

Carefully Selected’s Early Years

Carefully Selected would begin his racing career by running in two Irish point-to-point races, with his debut coming in February 2017. He finished second that day, losing out by a length, but it was a very good start to life on the track, and he would follow that up with a big win on his second start.

He won by 30 lengths, eased down, and that booked him in for a move to the Willie Mullins yard, where he would go racing under rules for the top Irish trainer. On rules debut in December 2017, Carefully Selected would go to Leopardstown for a national hunt flat race, a good quality race too, but one he won easily by eight lengths to really catch the eye.

That was followed up by a win at Naas, by just under five lengths this time, and that would set him up for the two big spring festivals. First came the Cheltenham Festival, where he would run a great race in the Champion Bumper to finish second behind relegate, beaten by a neck. That was followed up with a run in the Champion Bumper at Punchestown, where he finished third behind Tornado Flyer.

Sadly, Carefully Selected would miss almost 12 months at this point but came back to win a maiden hurdle at Limerick. Despite just one run over hurdles, he went to the Punchestown Festival for the Grade One Novice Hurdle over three miles there and ran a great race to finish third behind Minella Indo, this would also be his first run over three miles under rules.

Chasing would come next, and he began his novice chase campaign in perfect style, winning his first three races, with two wins at Grade Three level included in those. He impressed so much that he was sent off at odds on for the National Hunt Chase at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival but unseated his rider when out of contention.

Then would come the big break in his career, ending his novice days in the worst possible way. Carefully Selected would be off the track for 1022 days due to injury, missing out on the main part of his career, his potentially best days and who knows what could have been with the horse.

Carefully Selected’s Big Race Wins

As a novice chaser, Carefully Selected was able to win twice at Grade Three level, two good races, but his biggest win so far came after his break from racing in open company. He didn’t have any big wins over hurdles but only ran twice, winning a maiden them placing in a Grade One, with injury cutting his season short.

His biggest win was actually in handicap company when he won the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park in January 2023. This was when he was being trained for the Grand National and is often a stepping stone for Irish runners who are looking at the race. It was tight, he won the race by a short head off a handicap mark of 147, but that set him up perfectly for running in the Grand National later the same season.

He did go to Aintree in 2023, his first attempt at the big race, but could only finish 14^th, failing to get the trip and ultimately weakening out of contention in the race, but still managing to get home.