David Ord talks to Joe Chambers, racing manager to Susannah and Rich Ricci, as the National Hunt season clicks into top gear.
And like that it’s here. The 2025/2026 jumps season proper.
Last weekend saw the final Group One Flat contest of the year in the UK, the clocks go back, and the Willie Mullins Stable Tour hit our website.
It’s time to hunker down, adopt a sensible and thrifty policy when it comes to use of the central heating system and try to work out which of the geese safely boxed away in all the leading yards, are in fact swans.
For the owners it’s the time to dream too. But theirs is a very expensive one. The recruitment drive for the big guns is an ongoing process as prices soar and competition grows for the point-to-point winners and French imports that might just be the next Galopin Des Champs, Constitution Hill or Annie Power.
One man who has a ringside seat for that process is Joe Chambers, racing manager to Susannah and Rich Ricci.
The pink and green silks have become synonymous with high-class Closutton horses over the last 20 years and counting. Such success doesn’t happen by accident. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all.
Take last season for example.
It was a curious one for the team, After 15 consecutive campaigns in which Susannah and Rich were firmly ensconced in the top three owners in Ireland, they fell back somewhat with fewer runners.
That was more than offset by a first top-three finish in the UK though, picking up more than £600,000 in prize-money in the process and over 1,000,000 euro when you combine the winnings on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth led the charge in the UK at a time when their trainer needed them most.
“It’s fair to say those stats do reflect Rich and Susannah’s long-term support of Willie and their backing for his ultimately successful pursuit of a second British trainers’ title. Both horses came to Aintree and then Gaelic Warrior to Sandown for the final day of the season. The commitment was there!” Chambers smiles.
But the numbers also reflect a continuing period of transition when it comes to the make-up of the owners’ string for this campaign too.
You do the research and find that only ten from 31 horses who wore the pink and green over the last two seasons remain in the same ownership.
“There is an intent to focus on Graded horses while running an overall string that sits somewhere in the mid-20s numbers-wise. That means we have turned over a lot of stock, with the online sales companies and [rehoming of racehorses organisation] Treo Eile being regular beneficiaries, also Allegorie De Vasssy has been retired and is going to the Goffs December Sale in foal to Jukebox Jury.
“Unfortunately, there has been a loss of some promising young horses like Chapeau du Soleil, Mercurey and Willy de Houelle as well. And young horses with their potential are hard to replace with the market as it is right now.”
And the focus on Britain isn’t restricted to raids from Closutton either, with Venetia Williams now overseeing four Ricci-owned horses at her Aramstone base, reward no doubt for the exploits of Royale Pagaille.
But the bulk of the string remain in Ireland as the owners enter their third decade of their association with Mullins. They, like him, continue to evolve and adapt to the changing dynamics of the industry.
And again, the headline acts for the months ahead are Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth.
As our team in County Carlow last week took photos and videos of the juggernauts circling in front of them, the eye was drawn to Lossiemouth. She looked magnificent and to have thrived for a well-earned summer break.
Her campaign was at the crossroads in February of last year after a crashing fall in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown. It followed a Kempton reverse at the hooves of Constitution Hill over Christmas.
A rebuild was needed. The team took stock and then aim at the Mares’ Hurdle rather than the Champion after much discussion both in the media and behind closed doors.
And the magic returned.
“I think Lossiemouth ran over what appears to be her best distance at Cheltenham and Aintree in the spring, winning twice.” Chambers says.
“She appeared to feel the effects of the firmer ground she encountered there and was given an extended break. She will probably start off in the Bar One Hatton’s Grace before the inevitable ‘will she, won’t she’ guessing game clicks into full gear over her Cheltenham target.”
That debate can wait. The one over whether Gaelic Warrior himself will spend a Christmas in England this time around looks to be further down the line.
He too appeared lost after his own DRF blow-out and didn’t even travel to Cheltenham despite holding six-day entries in the big Grade One races.
Instead, connections sat on their hands and waited for the spark to return. It did in Liverpool just three weeks later.
“He had a season of false starts for much of the last campaign but rounded it off spectacularly at Aintree and Sandown with two impressive performances,” says Chambers.
It appears the remarkable team at Closutton now have a handle on him, and you’d hope the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day will be his early-season target. It’s fair to say that’s a race the Riccis have some unfinished business in. And with that you again watch Cue Card running down Vautour in 2015 and still can't quite believe he does so.
On this side of the Irish Sea, Royale Pagaille remains the Haydock A-lister. He’s often as good the first day as he’ll be for the rest of the campaign. But that’s no bad thing, not when that’s good enough to win the Betfair Chase, a habit he’s quite happily developed over the last two seasons.
“At the moment all looks set fair for him to go back to Haydock and try and win it a third time. He’s a horse who has given us some spectacular and dare I say emotional days out, and what an achievement it would be if he was to win it again,” said Chambers.
But behind the established big names, the up-and-comers are out to try to write a headline or two of their own.
“Mister Policeman looked very exciting when winning at Cork in the spring, going up to a mark of 155 in the process. He’s still only seven, rising eight, and while he’ll start the current campaign on the sidelines, he could be very exciting in the second half of the season,” Chambers enthuses.
“O’Moore Park failed to win a novice chase last season but ran creditably many times, most notably on two occasions at Cheltenham. He reappeared on Sunday at Galway and again ran creditably against a race-fit winner, and off a mark of 140, the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury may be a target as he has plenty of experience over fences.
“Other novice chase prospects for the coming season include Dr Eggman and the bumper/hurdle-winning duo of Joystick and Port Joulain. The latter pair have always been viewed as chasing prospects, given they arrived from the point-to-point field.
“Port Joulain is a stunning looking individual but will not be seen until the second half of the season though.”
Yet the quartet housed close to the SAS base in Hereford contain perhaps the ace in the pink and green novice chase pack.
“Kingbel du Lion could just be the best novice chase prospect of the lot,” Chambers concedes. “He raced twice in France and was given plenty of time to develop, he was only seen once in a maiden hurdle at Bangor-on-Dee last February and won as he liked. A big, raw horse who can surely only improve, he appears exactly the type that Venetia excels with. He might have a run over hurdles from his existing mark first though.
“There’s another nice one for fences this season a few boxes away from him too in Kara Sacre. He had three runs for Paul Nolan last season before joining the team. A winning point-to-pointer, he’s another we’re looking forward to if he matures as we hope he will.
“With the novice chase programme in the UK, both should be able to progress to varying degrees through the months ahead.”
But it’s the crop of youngsters where, numerically, the strength lies and as always there’s great interest from the outside world in those who have been added to the team for this and the campaigns that follow.
I know the Sporting Life party who visited the yard last week were impressed by point-to-point winner Love Sign d’Aunou, a very taking individual and a fine physical specimen.
“He's by the exciting young French sire Goliath du Berlais, he won his maiden at Loughanmore which is usually a venue for high-quality racing,” Chambers says.
“Sparkling Wit is a full brother to Gaelic Warrior and will obviously carry plenty of hope and expectation for owner and racing fans alike when he hits the racecourse and, looking even further ahead, the Riccis have also secured his two-year-old full brother. So, the pipeline continues to flow for us with that particular bloodline!
“Riskabahia’s name has occupied plenty of column inches for the past couple of seasons, but she is yet to don the pink and green silks in public. Apparently full of talent, I hope that given a clear run she will take high rank amongst mares' novice hurdlers this time around.
“Two more for novice hurdles are Laurets D’estruval and Karpenn. The former has raced once at Pau last December behind Lovely Guy, who has won three times. For the boffins amongst us, there is a lot of collateral form with other novice imports to the UK and Ireland from France to be had through him.
“Karpenn is still a maiden after five runs in France but looks tailormade to progress through the novice handicap hurdle programme for Venetia this time around.
“So far, we have three juvenile hurdlers in the ranks. Manita brings with her Auteuil form that appealed to many UK and Irish buyers given she was second to the now Seven Barrows-housed Manlaga on debut.
“Another recruit from across the Channel is Madness d’Elle who was third, again at Auteuil. Both are by Moises Has, a young sire who is making waves. All bar five of his 26 runners had either won or been placed by the time this duo started work at Closutton.
“Mister Yves is a more recent winner, having landed a Moulins bumper after finishing fourth on debut. He’s not eligible for Irish bumpers but might be a possible for the UK versions or a juvenile hurdling campaign.”
And the recruitment drive goes on. There’s no transfer window in the sport of horse racing, the shutters don’t come down to a fanfare on Sky Sports News while the equine world’s Fabrizio Romano retires to a darkened room for a month’s rest.
The search for the next diamond among the rocks is ongoing.
“The team recently bought Charme de Faust, who finished second in the Prix Finot at Auteuil last month. She’s another by Goliath du Berlais and will be given time. She might be one for next season.
“Another name for the longer-term is Karak De Faust, a beautifully-bred Zarak filly. She could well appear in a sales bumper in the spring,” Chambers says.
And there’s a new name in England too, with a new name. Well, new-ish. The Riccis are back in Seven Barrows having sent Nicky Henderson recent Arqana purchase Fire Warning.
“He’s a horse that Mr Henderson wanted strongly and looks a two miler, just the type the trainer usually excels with. So, he’s gone there,” Chambers reveals.
It’s some team.
And I can’t help but wonder what they would accept right now as they sit down for a glass or two of Sauvignon Blanc to reflect on the 2025/2026 National Hunt season next spring.
Another Mares’ Hurdle and a King George? A Grade One novice hurdle winner? Maybe in the Triumph? I’m sure a healthy campaign for their horses would do nicely for starters.
Last season was one of ups and downs for one of the great supporters of the winter game, but it ended on a high.
And with this firepower at their disposal, you sense the good days will ultimately outweigh the bad this time around too.
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