Jamie Snowden talks Graham Clark through his team of horses for the 2026-27 jumps season including Cheltenham Festival winner Johnny's Jury.
While some were ready to take a breather come the final day of the 2025/26 season at Sandown Park back in April, it was a campaign that Jamie Snowden did not want to end.
And there was good reason as to why the Lambourn handler wanted to keep the ball rolling. Not only did he celebrate setting a new personal best tally of 86 winners, but it was a season which saw him smash through the £1 million barrier in prize-money for the first time.
As the landscape of National Hunt racing continues to change, it is clear that Snowden now belongs in the upper echelons of the sport such are the giant strides he has made.
Victory for Johnny’s Jury in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle put another Cheltenham Festival success on his CV, while Wendigo supplied the master of Folly House Stables with more big race glory in the Grade Two Coral John Francome Novices’ Chase at Newbury.
Both of those stars will be at the forefront of Snowden’s team again this season, along with the likes of Colonel Harry, La Conquiere, and the returning Julius Des Pictons, who missed last term through injury.
And with his young stocks replenished with the likes of exciting Irish point-to-point winners A Real Banter, Chicks For Free and County Prospect joining his team, it all points to this season being another exciting one on the track for Snowden.
He said: “Last season was incredible and I didn’t want it to finish. The figures were amazing. We had eighty six winners amassing just shy of £1.3 million pounds in prize money, and a twenty five percent strike rate.
“We finished in the top ten, had a Grade One winner, and a Cheltenham Festival winner, so it was just incredible from start to finish. Our first runner was a winner, as was our last one.
“Cheltenham Festival winners, as we know, are very hard to come by, and Grade One winners are very hard to come by, and to put them together is pretty impossible, but for a yard of our size it was brilliant.
“It was great seeing Wendigo winning the Grade Two John Francome as it was Colonel Harry winning the Grand Sefton, along with training our first winner in the Royal colours as that was a huge honour.
“We have consolidated over the summer and hopefully we have got a nice new bunch of horses to go with those coming back.
“The levels have been raised, but I don't feel the pressure. It is excitement, more than pressure at this stage. There is a real buzz in the place and everyone is really excited.”
