The emoji trophies are handed out to the winners

Our National Hunt 2025-26 awards with Lossiemouth, Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton amongst the winners

Horse Racing

Sun April 26, 2026 · 3h ago

Ben Linfoot dishes out his emoji trophies following the conclusion of an enthralling 2025-26 National Hunt season.

Race of the Season – The John Durkan 🏆

It looked good at the time. Gaelic Warrior went clear, Fact To File reeled him in, Gaelic Warrior rallied bravely to win by a neck, the Willie Mullins pair 29 lengths clear of the rest. A proper race. When you consider the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner beat the Irish Gold Cup winner with the Ryanair winner in fourth, the Cheltenham Gold Cup third in fifth and then the Grand National winner in ninth, it’s a no brainer, even as you scream 'what about the King George?' at me. Let’s move on.

Trainer of the Season – Willie Mullins 🏆

Come on, of course it’s Willie Mullins. He is the landscape. Cheltenham Festival currency is king and he won eight races, including the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup. Three Grand Nationals in a row, too, for good measure. Dan Skelton, we’ll get to him, says he wants to beat Martin Pipe’s record for number of winners in a season, but toppling Willie Mullins’ achievements will be much harder. He’s built a formidable Grade 1 empire. We’re now at 120 Cheltenham Festival winners and counting. This isn’t dominance anymore. It’s the new normal.

Willie Mullins had another incredible season

Story of the season – Dan Skelton 🏆

Blimey, we’ve got to him already. Dan Skelton, a grin of ambition, British champion trainer for the first time. How did he do it? By having runners, lots of them, and winners, lots of them, and high-profile Saturday winners, lots of them. Panic Attack was the poster girl, winning the Paddy Power and Coral Gold Cups before Mullins had even had his first winner of the season on these shores. With over £5 million in the satchel by the season’s end, he’s a record breaker. The slight sting? 0/13 in the Grade 1s at Cheltenham. Improving that particular stat with regularity is the next step.

Horse of the Season – Gaelic Warrior 🏆

It’s not that long since post-Arkle success he was beaten three times in a row. Such a sequence sees the emergence of doubters, but it turns out Gaelic Warrior just needed a trip. Since going out in distance to three miles in the 2025 Aintree Bowl his form figures are 1-1-1-3-2-1, the third being beaten a short head in a super King George, the second when chasing home stablemate Fact To File in the Irish Gold Cup. At Cheltenham he reigned supreme, his smooth Gold Cup success a statement win, and he has set the bar for the current crop of staying chasers to try and reach.

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Jockey of the Season – Paul Townend 🏆

Yes, Sean Bowen is doing AP McCoy-like stuff but Paul Townend has got past being compared to peak Ruby Walsh and is now just Paul Townend doing Paul Townend things. Like those supreme Cheltenham rides on King Rasko Grey, Il Etait Temps and Gaelic Warrior. Like his second Grand National victory on I Am Maximus. He didn’t panic when Jordans went clear, he rode his own race and got the job done when the serious money was on the line. He’s that kind of jockey and while, yes, he rides all the best horses, he’s in that position for a very good reason.

Decision of the Season – Lossiemouth 🏆

Well done, Willie. Swerving the Mares’ route was a risky one, but it defined the season for the two-mile hurdlers. And Lossiemouth wins the Unibet Champion Hurdle in style. Hurrah! The new queen of Cheltenham has won four in a row at the Cheltenham Festival now but the Champion Hurdle, with all its history and prestige, is the best of the lot. After the farce of 2025 with Constitution Hill and State Man both coming down, the race needed a proper winner. It got one.

Paul Townend celebrates with the Champion Hurdle trophy

Exciting novice of the Season – King Rasko Grey 🏆

Crikey, this is a tough category. Is there even a standout novice? Lulamba, Kopek Des Bordes and Final Demand all threatened to be top dog but none fully stamped their authority in the sphere – Cheltenham saw to that. So it’s King Rasko Grey who takes the honours, his superb Turners Novices’ Hurdle victory boosted in no uncertain terms at Aintree (by Zeus Power, Bossman Jack and Soldier Reeves). And what is he? Chalked up at 16/1 for the Champion Hurdle and favourite for the Brown Advisory, he could be anything, so you can’t get much more exciting than that.

Up-and-coming trainer of the Season – Nick Scholfield 🏆

At last. A category that Willie Mullins can’t win. It’s been a really likeable start for Nick Scholfield in Lambourn, the former jockey having a fine first season at his Felstead Court Stables where he has trained nine individual winners to win 20 races at a strike-rate of 18%. You’d even be in profit backing him blind (+£12.82 to £1 at SP) so he’s clearly getting the most out of the team he has. Five handicap hurdle wins in a row for Bollin Thou (first win off 76, now rated 117) made him the joint most prolific handicap winner of the whole season and the campaign of Herring Queen winner Queenie St Clair advertised his skills nicely, as well.

Nick Scholfield: Now training horses and he's made a cracking start

Stallion on the up of the Season – Masked Marvel 🏆

For sheer numbers Walk In The Park dwarfs them all – he’s had 180 jumps winners since the season started on May 1, but Masked Marvel has long looked his heir apparent. Not only is he also a son of Montjeu, he’s also from German stock, like that other top jumps stallion Getaway, and it looks a matter of time before he produces another Teahupoo. Aintree Grade 1 winner Koktail Divin looks the real deal, as does Proactif, and given he’s got a few years on the likes of Walk In The Park, Getaway, Soldier Of Fortune and Doctor Dino, it’s Masked Marvel that could be the daddy of them all in a few years’ time with his numbers only going in one direction.

Ancient hero of the Season – West To The Bridge 🏆

In the late gloom of January, on a cold day at Chepstow, whips flailing, mud flying, a teenager that goes by the name of West To The Bridge taught the youngsters a lesson in the Albert Bartlett Triple Crown Series Handicap Hurdle (Qualifier). He’s not one of Dan Skelton’s stable stars and he’s contributed just the £9,000 to the £5 million Skelton haul, but he’s living proof that age is just a number. The 13-year-old did it the hard way, making all and just holding on after a protracted duel with a horse more than half his age in Grenadier Jed, the pair 12 lengths clear of the rest. Love that. So he gets an award.

Paul Townend roars with delight after winning the Grand National aboard I Am Maximus

Historical tee up of the Season – I Am Maximus 🏆

We start with Mullins, we end with Mullins and there was plenty of Mullins in the middle, as well. It is what it is. His I Am Maximus roared to his second Randox Grand National at Aintree just a few weeks ago and despite all the changes; the reduction of the race’s distance, the reduction of the race’s runners and the reduction in the fear factor of the race’s fences, it remains the one race that truly transcends our little racing bubble. Tiger Roll didn’t get the chance to emulate the great Red Rum, but I Am Maximus has teed up his hat-trick bid beautifully and, whatever happens next season, a three-time Nash winner would trump it all. Bring it on.

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