Timeform Awards: The winners for the 2024/25 jumps season 28f5d

TOP CHASER: GALOPIN DES CHAMPS (175)

A third Cheltenham Gold Cup might have eluded him, but Galopin des Champs retains his title as Top Chaser and as Horse of The Season. With his customary return in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase under his belt, he returned to winning ways at Leopardstown where he is now unbeaten in seven starts, winning the Savills Chase for the second year running before completing a hat-trick of Irish Gold Cups. But after a slightly below-par effort at Cheltenham, his best effort of the season came in the Punchestown Gold Cup after surprise defeats in the two previous editions of that race, running out a wide-margin winner from his three rivals after leading throughout.

Inothewayurthinkin (174+) came up against Galopin des Champs in all four of his races and improved with each run. Beaten a long way in the John Durkan, Inothewayurthinkin had shaped more like a Grand National horse in his two runs at Leopardstown, though his keeping-on fourth in the Irish Gold Cup prompted a supplementation for Cheltenham. Improving again in the Gold Cup, he ran out a six-length winner after heading Galopin des Champs approaching the final fence. The titleholder might not have been at his best on the day but, two years his junior, Inothewayurthinkin looks Galopin des Champs’ obvious successor as the top staying chaser.

Rather than Inothewayurthinkin, Fact To File (173) had begun the season looking JP McManus’s main Gold Cup hope, especially after returning with a win in the John Durkan. But those ambitions were dented by two defeats behind stablemate Galopin des Champs at Leopardstown, after which Fact To File was rerouted to the Ryanair Chase which he won with a faultless display by nine lengths. A further drop back in trip to two miles at Punchestown backfired but he remains another top-class chaser capable of winning more big races.

Patrick Mullins said: “Galopin Des Champs was awesome in his three victories and brave in his two defeats this season, both hallmarks of a true champion. We’ve not had the likes of him before and we might not have again. He’s a phenomenal beast."

Click here to read Galopin des Champs' Horse of the Season profile

TOP HURDLER: STATE MAN (167)

The two-mile hurdle division hasn’t been the most exciting in recent years but there was nothing dull about it in the latest season. Once the dust had settled on a dramatic campaign punctuated by a series of falls in the top races, last year’s Top Hurdler Lossiemouth (158 + 7 lb sex allowance) had fallen four out, almost bringing him down.

However, that drama was nothing compared with the Champion Hurdle where Constitution Hill (166) had already crashed out by the time State Man, in cheekpieces for the first time, came to the final hurdle around five lengths clear and looking all set to win the race for the second year running only for him to fall as well. Another meeting between State Man, Constitution Hill and the lucky Champion Hurdle winner Golden Ace in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle was also a damp squib but State Man took full advantage of a very tame display from Constitution Hill to win the race for the third year running.

Constitution Hill’s campaign had begun well enough when completing his own hat-trick of Christmas Hurdle wins at Kempton after a year’s absence when Lossiemouth chased him home. While he followed up against much-inferior rivals in the International Hurdle at Cheltenham, his last-flight blunder proved to be a sign of things to come. To borrow a wrestling term, the remainder of Constitution Hill’s season consisted of two falls and a submission. He only got as far as the fifth in the Champion Hurdle and then had another heavy fall two out in the Aintree Hurdle which went to Lossiemouth before trailing home fifth at Punchestown, his first defeat in completed starts. Lossiemouth’s season is covered more fully below.

Patrick Mullins said: “State Man didn’t have the perfect season but he picked himself back up after his Christmas blowout to win again at the Dublin Racing Festival and at Punchestown. While his Cheltenham mishap was a huge pity, he righted that wrong in Punchestown and while he’ll never put in a demolition job like Galopin Des Champs does, the depth of his ability is far greater than anyone can see on the track.

TOP NOVICE CHASER: SIR GINO (163p)

Sir Gino has the potential to be just the latest in a series of top two-mile chasers that Nicky Henderson has trained but he faces a long road back from an injury which at one stage looked as though it might end his career. An infection to ligaments in a hind leg ruled him out of the Game Spirit Chase in February when he was ante-post favourite for the Arkle, and while that initially took a turn for the worse, he was reported in March to have returned to Seven Barrows where his trainer is hopeful of getting him back on a racecourse at some stage. At least Sir Gino has time on his side as he is only a five-year-old. After returning with a win in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle when deputising for absent stablemate Constitution Hill, Sir Gino was switched to fences at Kempton just after Christmas and kept his unbeaten record with a superb display of jumping in the Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase where he had too much speed for last season’s Top Novice Hurdler Ballyburn. Sir Gino achieved a rating which few novices reach on their chasing debut, and it wasn’t bettered all season.

Fellow five-year-old Majborough (162p) got close though. He had taken advantage of Sir Gino’s absence to win the Triumph Hurdle the previous season but couldn’t do the same when odds on for the Arkle at the latest Festival where his jumping let him down. His close third there was his only defeat in four starts over fences, coming in between convincing wins in the Irish Arkle and the Barberstown Castle Novice Chase at Punchestown where he gave a sound beating to the Arkle runner-up Only By Night despite a tendency to jump left.

Majborough’s stablemate Impaire Et e (159) proved himself almost as good over fences as he was over hurdles, winning three of his four completed starts. They included Grade 1 wins in the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick and the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree where he had the Arkle winner Jango Baie back in third, but Impaire Et e was brought down on a first try over three miles at Punchestown.

TOP NOVICE HURDLER: THE NEW LION (161p)

Irish-trained horses have dominated the Cheltenham Festival’s novice hurdles in recent years, especially in the Baring Bingham (run as the Turners in 2025) where Final Demand (160p). On pedigree, The New Lion will stay further still, though he gives the impression he would cope with a well-run two miles given the way he travels.

The less experienced Final Demand was sent off favourite for the Turners and wasn’t at his best but still shaped well in what was his only defeat in four starts. A strapping chasing type, Final Demand had impressed beforehand when winning the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival but ran his best race at Punchestown in the Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle, winning by further still under a front-running ride which made full use of his relentless galloping. He thus became Willie Mullins’ fifth consecutive winner of the race, following on from Galopin des Champs, State Man, Impaire Et e and Ballyburn.

Mullins’ other top novice hurdler was Kopek des Bordes (159), though he was a big disappointment in Punchestown’s other Champion Novice Hurdle over two miles, where his jumping let him down. Previously unbeaten in a bumper and his first three hurdles, Kopek des Bordes jumped much better than he had on his debut when outclassing his rivals in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown and then landed the odds with another very smart effort in the Supreme Novices’ at Cheltenham. He’s another with the physique for fences.

TOP MARE: LOSSIEMOUTH (158)

Another three Grade 1 wins, two of them in open company, took Lossiemouth’s excellent record over hurdles to 11 wins from 13 completed starts by the end of the season. She had too much speed for stayer Teahupoo in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on her return in December but not enough to make her fitness tell when unable to land a blow against Constitution Hill back at two miles in the Christmas Hurdle. Lossiemouth’s uncharacteristic fall when odds on for the Irish Champion Hurdle came next, but for which she might have gone for the Champion Hurdle, but connections opted for the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle and she had no trouble winning it for the second year running with a performance which, it turned out, was better than the one Golden Ace, another mare, had needed to win the Champion Hurdle. Instead Lossiemouth met Constitution Hill again in the Aintree Hurdle and didn’t need to run to her best once Constitution Hill had departed two out.

Lossiemouth wasn’t the only Irish mare with Champion Hurdle aspirations, her form only marginally better than that of Brighterdaysahead (157), though their paths never crossed during the season. After returning with a Grade 3 win at Down Royal, Brighterdaysahead inflicted odds-on defeats on State Man in the Morgiana Hurdle and Neville Hotels Hurdle where a thirty-length win took her career record to nine wins from ten starts. But she missed a golden opportunity to take advantage of her male rivals’ jumping frailties in the Champion Hurdle, fading into fourth behind Golden Ace who had inflicted her only previous defeat at the Festival twelve months earlier. Brighterdaysahead disappointed again when third to the Mares’ Hurdle runner-up Jade de Grugy in the Mares Champion Hurdle at Punchestown.

Over fences, Dinoblue (156) maintained her position as the highest-rated mare. She ended her campaign with a hat-trick against her own sex, which included going one better than the year before in the Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham before a wide-margin success at Punchestown.

Patrick Mullins said: “Lossiemouth topped and tailed her season with victories in the Hatton’s Grace and the Aintree Hurdle, with a Cheltenham Festival win in between. She had two shots at the big guns mid-season and came up short twice. So we’re hoping that next year she can step up to the very top table.”

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD: CHEMICAL WARFARE

No other jumper in training - not even one trained by Willie Mullins! - exceeded Chemical Warfare's haul of seven wins during the latest season but the fact they came exclusively in handicaps and were spread across almost an entire year of regular racing tipped the scales in his favour against the usual clutch of unsung success stories from 2024/25. The first of that septet of successes came over hurdles on only his third appearance for David Pipe, but the rest of his remarkable season was geared almost exclusively around chasing and his sixth and final chase win of the campaign came from a BHA mark of 115, some 40 lb higher than that kick-starter over the smaller obstacles.

The toughness displayed along the way ought not be underestimated, either - it's one thing for a sprinter to run so regularly but something quite different altogether for a jumper who covered twenty-three furlongs or further fully ten times across a fourteen-race campaign.

A change of stable seemed a major catalyst as well in the progress made by runner-up in this category, Hughie Morrison's Lady Babs, who missed nearly two years prior to her reappearance yet ended the campaign in career-best form for Andy Crook by winning four of her last five outings at an age - 11 - when she could easily have already been in the paddocks.

RACE OF THE SEASON

With the best races judged on the average Timeform master rating of the first three home, the Irish Gold Cup was Race of The Season for the second year running. It had the same average rating as the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, but won the award due to the winner's rating being higher.

In a race that wasn’t run at a strong pace, none of the principals ran up to their very best in the Irish Gold Cup, but Galopin des Champs stayed on strongly to win by just under five lengths, with the future Ryanair Chase winner Fact To File just losing out for second to Grangeclare West. Grangeclare West was a big outsider on the day but ran at least as well, despite a mistake at the last, to finish a keeping-on third in the Grand National in another Mullins one-two-three.

Galopin des Champs and Fact To File had also figured in the finish of the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase where the shorter trip favoured Fact To File who had Galopin des Champs back in third after the latter had made most of the running. Fact To File was pushed closest by another second-season chaser Spillane’s Tower who ran a career best which he was some way short of matching in the King George VI Chase and Punchestown Gold Cup.

Inothewayurthinkin was out of the first three in both the above races but showed further improvement to come good in the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the chief expense of a somewhat below-par Galopin des Champs, while third place was taken by outsider Gentlemansgame who is a high-class chaser nonetheless and who had finished a closer third behind Galopin des Champs and Fact To File in the Savills Chase.