Nobel Yeats was bought, as a seven-year-old, by owner/breeder Robert Waley-Cohen in late February 2022, to provide a ride for his son, leading amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen, in the Grand National a little over six weeks later. It proved to be a shrewd purchase, too.
Waley-Cohen rode the Emmet Mullins-trained gelding for the first time in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, finishing in mid-division, beaten 20 lengths, behind Corach Rambler (coincidentally, the 2023 Grand National winner). Consequently, off an identical handicap mark, Noble Yeats was sent off as a largely unconsidered 50/1 at Aintree, but belied those odds by staying on well in the closing stages to beat the well-fancied pair Any Second Now and Delta Work by two-and-a-quarter lengths and 20 lengths. In so doing, he became the first seven-year-old to win the Grand National since Bogskar in 1940 and made Waley-Cohen the first amateur jockey to win since Marcus Armytage in 1990.
In the wake of his Grand National victory, Sam Waley-Cohen was fined £400 and officially suspended for nine days by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) for breaching whip rules in the closing stages. However, granted that he had said beforehand that, win or lose, Noble Yeats would be his last ride ever, the suspension proved somewhat moot.
Noble Yeats ran in the Grand National twice more. In 2023, off a handicap mark 19lb higher than the previous year, and with professional Sean Bowen replacing Waley-Cohen in the saddle, he finished fourth, beaten eight-and-a-half lengths, behind the aforementioned Corach Rambler. In 2024, after a spell over hurdles, including the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, he trailed in nineteenth of 21 finishers, beaten 56 lengths, behind I Am Maximus, having never travelled, according to jockey Harry Cobden.
Nobel Yeats ran just once more, when pulled up before two out in the Grade 1 Savills Hurdle at Leopardstown in December 2024. He has yet to be officially retired, but was reportedly “sore and uncomfortable” after that run and, at the time of writing, remains out of training. A lightly-raced 11-year-old, with just 25 starts to his name, we may not have seen the last of him yet.