The 2024/25 National Hunt campaign has already provided thrills and spills aplenty, but the most significant events lie ahead. Springtime is the season when the winter arm of the sport truly begins to shine, thanks to the giant double header of the incomparable Cheltenham Festival and the awesome Aintree Grand National Meeting.
When looking ahead to those imminent fixtures, much of the talk centres around attempting to identify the likely winners of the Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, and Grand National. Looking past the results of individual races reveals an intriguing subplot running through the closing months. Having contributed to a thrilling end to the 2023/24 campaign, the race for the British Trainer’s Championship may once again go down to the wire.
With only a few months remaining, the man who came so close to lifting a first title in 2023/24 leads the way. However, he must maintain his momentum to keep his nose in front. A trio of vastly experienced rivals have Dan Skelton in their sights and may be ready to pounce in the valuable events to come. Here, we look at the current state of play and the key horses and races in the closing stages of the campaign.
Dan Skelton
- 2024/25 Prize Money – £2,309,339
- Previous Champion Trainer Titles – None
Having lost out by under £200,000 in 2023/24, Dan Skelton has set out to leave nothing to chance this time around. Skelton burst out of the traps to build a significant lead in the opening months, with that increased focus on the summer jumping scene paying dividends. With March fast approaching, Skelton has banked around £600,000 more in prize money than at the same time last year.
Rather than relying on a series of stars to land significant pots, 185 horses have contributed to the Skelton total. However, with huge prizes on offer at Cheltenham and Aintree, now may be the time for at least one of the big guns to strike. If at least one of L’Eau Du Sud, The New Lion, or Protektorat scores at Cheltenham, Paul Nicholls’s former assistant may be very tough to catch.
Paul Nicholls
- 2024/25 Prize Money – £1,700,253
- Previous Champion Trainer Titles – 14
Paul Nicholls has expressed his disappointment at how the 2024/25 season has unfolded. It is, therefore, a testament to his training prowess and talent within the yard that he still sits second in the Championship race.
With 14 Champion Trainer titles lighting up the Ditcheat trophy cabinet, Nicholls needs just one more to draw level with the legendary Martin Pipe. However, it is going to take a big swing in his favour to overcome a £600,000+ deficit.
In years gone by, Nicholls would head to Cheltenham harbouring realistic hopes of erasing much of that £600,000 total. Not so in 2025. Lacking a squad laden with Grade 1 stars, most of his Cheltenham entries are among the outsiders – the glory days of Kauto Star, Master Minded, and Denman feel like a long time ago. If Nicholls is to have any chance of bagging the title, he will almost certainly need to claim the Grand National for the second time in his career.
Nicky Henderson
- 2024/25 Prize Money – £1,415,447
- Previous Champion Trainer Titles – 6
First lifting the title in 1985/86, the master of Seven Barrows now has six championships, the most recent of which came in 2019/20. Henderson is a little behind where he was at this stage in 2023/24 and almost £900,000 behind Skelton, but he may still be the man most likely to reel the leader in.
In contrast to the relentless approach of the Championship leader, Henderson has adopted a more focused strategy with his runners – his prize money is shared between only 83 horses. To see Henderson still in touch may concern Skelton, as this is the time of year when the 74-year-old tends to shine.
The 2024 Cheltenham Festival was all but a write-off due to the illness afflicting the yard at the time, but only Willie Mullins is ahead of Henderson in the all-time Cheltenham Festival trainers list. Arkle hope Sir Gino misses out this year, but Henderson still has the warm favourites for the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, and Triumph Hurdle. If he picks up two or three of those prizes, things could become really interesting in April.
Willie Mullins
- 2024/25 Prize Money – £178,860
- Previous Champion Trainer Titles – 1
Ordinarily, the trainer currently sitting in 57th position at this stage wouldn’t be seen as a threat. That theory goes out of the window when the man in question is Willie Mullins.
We need only look back to last season to see that a deficit of £2m is far from insurmountable for a man who breaks new ground with each passing year. Mullins looked to have work to do heading into March last year, only to rattle off nine winners at the Cheltenham Festival and claim Grand National gold. Over £3m in prize money in the final two months was enough to see Mullins become the first trainer to win the championship on both sides of the Irish Sea since Vincent O’Brien in 1954.
Many congratulations to WILLIE MULLINS, Britain’s Champion Trainer for the 2023/24 season 👊
⭐ First Irish-based trainer to win the title since 1954
⭐ 85 different horses have contributed to his triumph
⭐ Perennial Irish champion since 2008
⭐ More than 4000 winners overall pic.twitter.com/cm6YyMcrhR— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 27, 2024
Could he repeat the feat in 2025? In all likelihood, he will need to at least replicate last season’s efforts, but with six short-priced favourites at the Cheltenham Festival and I Am Maximus set to defend his Grand National crown, anything is possible for the Closutton colossus. The months ahead are sure to be thrilling.
