Timeform: The best of 2020 on the Flat and over jumps

The best jumps performance of 2020

Chacun Pour Soi – Timeform rating 176, Dublin Chase, Leopardstown, February

A changing of the guard is taking place in the two-mile division. Altior dominated the division for years, compiling a record-breaking 19-race winning streak over obstacles, but he made it to the course only twice last season, missed his engagement in the Champion Chase after meeting with a setback and simply didn't look the force of old when a laboured second in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on Sunday. Shishkin, who completed the same course and distance in a much faster time than Altior when winning the Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase on Sunday, is the latest flying machine to emerge from Nicky Henderson's Seven Barrows stable and the prospect of him meeting Chacun Pour Soi next season is a tantalising one.

Chacun Pour Soi was off the course for more than 1,000 days before making his debut for Willie Mullins at Naas in March 2019, but he proved worth the wait, bolting up by 31 lengths in the style of a horse sure to make an impact at a higher level. That point was proved emphatically at the Punchestown Festival a couple of months later when he beat Cheltenham Festival winners Defi du Seuil and Duc des Genievres, and he raised his game further last season, putting up the performance of the campaign when brushing aside top-class stablemate Min in the Dublin Chase.

Chacun Pour Soi had shaped as if in need of the run when beaten by A Plus Tard in the Paddy's Rewards Club Chase at Leopardstown, but he proved a different proposition back at the same course in the Dublin Racing Festival in February, gliding through the race like only a horse of the highest calibre can before sticking to his task well after the last to score by three and three-quarter lengths. A late setback meant Chacun Pour Soi missed the Cheltenham Festival, but Min's Ryanair Chase success offered further proof, if any were needed, of what he had achieved in the Dublin Chase. Not content with the best performance of 2020, Chacun Pour Soi was also responsible for the second-best effort when slamming dual Grade 1 winner Notebook by six and a half lengths in a superb time at Leopardstown last Sunday.

The best jumps performance by a novice in 2020

Champ – 166, RSA Chase, Cheltenham, March

It was a rollercoaster novice campaign for Champ, who registered a straightforward success on his chasing debut at Newbury, made much harder work of landing the odds in a Grade 2 at the same course (almost took the wrong course after the last) and then fell with the race at his mercy in the Dipper at Cheltenham. Those efforts, allied with what he had shown during a novice hurdle campaign in which he won two Grade 1s, suggested that Champ was going right to the top, and he ultimately proved that in the RSA Chase, conjuring a remarkable late surge to overhaul two similarly promising rivals in Allaho and Minella Indo.

Old rivals Allaho and Minella Indo looked to have the RSA Chase to themselves after pulling clear on the turn for home, but Champ, who took time to find his stride, started to fly up the run-in when in full cry, rapidly reducing the deficit and eventually getting up to score by a length. He has yet to be seen this season, while Minella Indo fell in the Savills Chase before able to show what he's worth, but the feeling remains that the 2020 RSA Chase is an extremely strong piece of form and the principals could still play a leading role in open staying chases this season.

The best Flat performance of 2020

Ghaiyyath – 133, Juddmonte International, York, August

There had been flashes of brilliance in previous seasons, no doubt, but 2020 was the year Ghaiyyath finally put it all together, proving beyond doubt his status as a truly top-class racehorse. Lengthy absences and flops on the back of big efforts had checked Ghaiyyath's progress in his early years but, now a fully mature five-year-old, he added consistency to his class, racking up a Group 1 hat-trick in the Coronation Cup, Coral-Eclipse and Juddmonte International, producing a performance deemed top-class on Timeform's scale on each occasion. In fact, those three wins feature among the top five efforts posted on the Flat in 2020, with his Juddmonte International success deemed the best performance of the campaign.

Ghaiyyath had fended off Enable at Sandown only six weeks prior to the Juddmonte International, while his Eclipse win came just a month after he smashed the track record in the Coronation Cup at Newmarket. There was an obvious concern that such big efforts would dull Ghaiyyath’s brilliance at York, but he produced another sensational display from the front, fully unwinding down the Knavesmire and pounding his rivals into submission. The teak-tough Magical would get her revenge in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, where it seemed as if an unusually busy campaign had finally taken the edge off Ghaiyyath, but she had no answer in the Juddmonte International, settling for a three-length second to a rival of rare ability.

The best performance by a two-year-old in 2020

St Mark's Basilica – 121, Dewhurst Stakes, Newmarket, October

There wasn't much to split the best two-year-olds of 2020, though the results of the National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes suggest the O'Brien family have plenty to look forward to in 2021. Thunder Moon, trained by Joseph O'Brien, led home Wembley and St Mark's Basilica, trained by Aidan O'Brien, at the Curragh, but the form was reversed at Newmarket, with St Mark's Basilica's three-quarter-length success deemed the performance of the division.

St Mark's Basilica had clearly always been held in high regard as he was sent off the 7/2 favourite for the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes on just his second start after finishing runner-up in a maiden on debut. He took a bit of time to fulfil those lofty expectations but progressed markedly with racing, improving for the step up to seven furlongs, and showed a very smart level of form in the Dewhurst that entitles him to be considered a leading contender for Classic honours next season, for all it's a tightly-packed division.