Just some of the drama from this year's Champion Hurdle

Champions: Full Gallop: Season Two preview

By David Ord

Horse Racing

Thu October 16, 2025 · 3w ago

David Ord talks to executive producer Tom Willis ahead of season two of Champions: Full Gallop.

Champions: Full Gallop returns to our TV screens on Friday evening – and the programme makers feel it does so a more confident, rounded and dramatic offering.

Series one was generally well received but for many the strongest episode was the very first one, Hewick’s King George victory.

This time executive producer Tom Willis insists the momentum will be carried right through to a dramatic finale, filmed on that afternoon at Sandown in April.

“I think it’s a better series than series one. Series one, episode one, was a really good show but overall series two raises the bar,” he said.

🏇📺 Can't wait for this!

🙌 Champions Full Gallop returns to @itvracing on Friday 17th October! pic.twitter.com/0XkfsQBRtV
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) October 12, 2025

“It’s interesting at the premiere last week, talking to people, everyone, whether they be from RMG, Flutter or ITV, seems to have a different favourite episode. I hope that says they’re all good.

“I’m very proud of it, for series one I didn’t know very much about racing at all and after doing it for a year and a bit, you get to know everybody, understand their stories and that’s quite important.

“The access that we got to the racing world the second time around has been better, the people who maybe didn’t embrace it first time, did the second, and that was really pleasing from my point of view.

“The access is better, we have some really dramatic races and there’s a lot more emotion in the programme this time than there was last year. “

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At the BAFTA premiere episode five was shown and very well received. It of course had a remarkable story to tell.

“In the Grand National episode, the dynamic between Patrick and Willie and that father/son relationship is so strong and fascinating. There’s the emotional ending with Willie in tears. Alice Plunkett said to me she’d been trying for 25 years to make him cry and now she knows what it takes!

Harry Cobden, Olivia Johnston and Joel Dommett at the Premiere

“There are other remarkable stories elsewhere though. Episode one goes into Freddie Gingell’s backstory, a hugely emotional one, episode two centres on Constitution Hill and the relationship between Nicky Henderson and Nico De Boinville which is fascinating.

“Three is focused on the northern scene. One of the stories there is of trainer Paul Robson, who was just out of hospital after fracturing his pelvis on the gallops. He’d been working for the family undertakers business to try and fund his training career. It’s fascinating and shows the sport isn’t just one for millionaires.

“Four has huge drama in the Champion Hurdle. Last season the first episode with the King George was super dramatic with Shishkin falling two out. But the Champion Hurdle this time around trumped that in terms of sheer drama.

“The gasp at Cheltenham when Constitution Hill fell was quite something. Then Golden Ace winning from nowhere was an incredible underdog story. That’s what you’re looking for when you’re trying to make a series like this.

“Yes, you want to give racing fans something, but part of our remit is also to try and engage new fans, bring new people to the sport. So, you’re trying to find those powerful human stories and I feel like we did that reasonably well this time.”

So how do you decide the six stories to tell?

“It can be quite tricky. Each episode is focused on a race meeting or a specific race. And so we’ll go into that race, say the Champion Hurdle, and we’ve done quite a bit of filming with Nicky and Nico already,” Willis continues.

“One of the big differences this year is we had access to Paul Townend which we didn’t have in series one. He’s been very generous with his time, we went to his house, we did lots with him. So, you’re following the people who you think might win but as you know, one of the brilliant things with jump racing, is it’s wonderfully unpredictable.

“Anything can happen, the favourite can fall at the last, and from a documentary maker's point of view, that unpredictability is a dream really.”

Paul Townend celebrates after his win on Kopek Des Bordes

Paul Townend - big contributor this time

And Willis feels his team have been given all the support they need from the sport despite one or two familiar challenges.

“I think it has cooperated really well. I previously did a series with Netflix about Six Nations rugby, and I would say that was a lot harder than Champions: Full Gallop has been,” he said.

“I feel like racing wants this kind of series; it needs this kind of series to bring a different audience to it. As I said earlier, there are people who may have been hesitant in series one, and then having seen what the show was, and when something is new you do take a risk to get involved with it, jumped on board this time.

“And those who decided to get involved in series two really embraced it. Racing is hugely fragmented as an industry, there are some many organisations to deal with. Every time you go to film with someone there’s a different negotiation. But by and large we’ve been massively embraced by the sport.

“It’s a privilege to stand in the parade ring at the Grand National or Cheltenham, to get that close, to be in the weighing room before and after huge races That’s one of the huge privileges of my job and allows the team to create the programme we have.”