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Targets the best horses , at the best races , has accumilated a mass of good horses , great production line of new talent , the best trainer has won the championship again.
Why do people immediately want to change the rules if they don’t like the result?
Dan Skelton is quite relaxed over not winning it. No wonder, after all he gets his percentage of over 3 million in prize money plus the Skeltons got half a million for that David Power jockeys nonsense.
Willie Mullins got nothing for winning the trainers championship.
The best system for deciding the trainers championship is the one they have now.Even with 10 victories at Cheltenham and 8 at Aintree including the Grand National, it took Willie Mullins until the penultimate race of the season to mathematically secure the title. It is not as if Skelton never had a chance.
Mullins’s runners enhanced the card yesterday. Without them, GA Law would have won the Oaksey Chase. Jonbon would have won the Celebration Chase by 10 lengths from Edwardstone and Ed Chamberlain and all the other ITV experts would have told us he is one of the all time greats, trained by a genius.
Skelton, the Punters Pal with Langer Dan, will probably win it next year. Especially if he wins a few more races in the early part of the season which Mullins does not target. Remember, Mullins took all his runners out of the King George.
Of course those who support Mullins and the behemoth he has become will want to keep the status quo and won’t want any change. Nowadays the all powerful King Mullins can pretty much decide if and when he wants to win the UK trainers title.
Just as deciding the trainers title on total number of winners was proven to be wrong back in Pipe/Nicholls era so is prize money now.
Why should finishing unplaced in any race help you win any title? Perhaps someone might like to enlighten me? Mullins is using his vast horse numbers to not only win races but pick up as much money in-behind.
I’ll repeat the trainers title should be based on a WHOLE season. It should reflect those type of races won and shouldn’t take into account horses that didn’t win.
Good interview with Mullins by Tom Stanley on RTV. Unlike some trainers, Mullins genuinely does appreciate the history of racing.
“Just as deciding the trainers title on total number of winners was proven to be wrong back in Pipe/Nicholls era so is prize money now.”
I thought it had always been decided on prize money?
“Mullins collected £840,000 in one race.
That is the crux of the issue.”
Maybe the problems is how poor the prize money is in 90% of races rather than the £840,000 in one race.
If the 125 class 5’s Astralcharmer refers to had decent prize money maybe Skelton would have hosed up.That’s the problem when you have bookmakers running the sport.
Like one or two on here I’m more interested in horses than jockeys and trainers championships but I’m sure racing would have been less interesting in the last few weeks without Mullins going for it. Although I could have done without the continuous updates of every single pound of prize money before and after every single race and even during them. That was just boring.
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I’m not disputing prize money at the lower level is pathetic and sponsors throw top dollar at the high profile races. It utterly skewers the trainers title.
Imagine if the jockeys title was based on prize money alone as Paul Townsend wins 10 of the richest races in the UK and beats Bowen to the title having won over a 150 races.
I still think a points based system is fairer. It might encourage Mullins to bring over some of his better horses earlier in the season.
I’ve no idea how it would have panned out had the season been decided on points based on class of race won but at least it would reflect the type of race won over a longer period. It might offer up more betting opportunities if that’s your want.
“I still think a points based system is fairer. It might encourage Mullins to bring over some of his better horses earlier in the season.”
I don’t believe it would. Mullins trains them for the DRF, Cheltenham and Punchestown. He always had runners in the Grand National but now he is having more runners on the Aintree supporting card, partly because of the prize money but also because of the sheer number of runners he has in his yard. He may as well keep a few fresh for Aintree.
Mullins only goes for the Trainers Championship if he is in with a realistic chance after Cheltenham. If the format was changed, I don’t think Mullins would change the way he trains just to win the British Championship.
Everyone knows the rules at the start of the season. Mullins has done nothing wrong. There have been some good points made in criticism of the situation. But there has been a lot of sour grapes as well.
I don’t think anyone can say Willie Mullins is not a thoroughly likable person and I’ve only ever heard positive things about him although Ed Chamberlain bizarrely said yesterday I really want to hate him but I can’t, why would you want to hate anyone for no apparent reason?
It does make a mockery of the championship when Dan Skelton goes hell for leather at the start and throughout the season only for Willie Mullins to canter along at the end and take the prize but that isn’t his fault.The more I know the less I understand.
Skelton will win it one day. Maybe as early as next season. Mullins will almost certainly need to win the Grand National again and that is not guaranteed. He went mob handed into the old Whitbread yesterday and didn’t win it.
It is clearly disappointing for Skelton to have got so close this season but I don’t feel sorry for him. As Mullins said in his interview on RTV, he knows what it is like to finish second. It won’t do Skelton any harm. He is still quite young for a trainer and has plenty of years ahead of him. It will be all the sweeter for him when he does win.
Mine is not sour grapes at all. It wouldn’t matter if it were O’Neill or O’Brien being caught in the same manner. And it’s not an Irish thing (my ancestry is very much Irish).
As it’s the London Marathon today would we like someone to join in 24 miles into the race and storm home and then say well he was the best anyway?
To me if a Class 1 Grade 1 wins 8 points at the Festivals and a Class 5 at Worcester in July wins 1 point that seems a lot fairer than the current system.
I don’t have the data but it would be interesting to calculate how the table would look based on my system. Perhaps someone could show how this would have panned out between Skelton & Mullins this season.
“Mine is not sour grapes at all.”
I was not referring to your comments, Astralcharmer. I had someone else in mind. And one particular trainer who embarrassed himself with his whining.
There is clearly a discussion to be had around the format of the Trainers Championship and the prize money on offer in certain races. But I am not going to blame Mullins for winning the Championship and for playing his hand so well. Instead, I congratulate him on his achievement.
Success has not come to Mullins overnight. He has worked hard for it. He always comes across well in interviews. I met him at Downpatrick about 10 years ago. He was watching the races from the stand like any ordinary punter and had time to speak to everyone.
OK, he has the big owners now and he can get a lot of the best horses. But they don’t train themselves.
He is achieving something remarkable. To my mind, it seems mean spirited for a lot of people to be talking in terms of what amounts to taking him down a peg or two instead of celebrating what he has done.
“And it’s not an Irish thing (my ancestry is very much Irish).”
It is the same for me. But unfortunately I do think some of the comments by some British people are motivated by a sense of not liking an Irish trainer winning the British title.
I wonder if they would feel the same way if a British trainer won a few races at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting, the DRF and Punchestown and became the Champion Trainer in Ireland? I expect they would he hailing it as a great achievement!
Highest attendance at Final Day of Jumps season, at the Sandown meeting, since before covid.
Seems that peeps voted with their feet yesterday
Astralcharmer Skelton would have won using the points system even doing some rough calculations.
Total winners, Skelton 178 with 4 of those Grade 1.
Total winners, Mullins 38 with 13 of those Grade 1.The more I know the less I understand.
Thanks for that. So Mullins could still potentially win the title but would need to target a few more early season races which would make them more interesting. He would also have to visit a bit more regularly with his lesser lights.
I don’t know how many of Skelton’s winners were at the lower end of the scale in Class 4 or 5 and I’m assuming Mullins didn’t have many other than when his son was rocking up at the some of the smaller tracks which added a little bit of intrigue too.
It would be interesting to get a full breakdown of Skelton’s winners in each class to see what he would have scored across a whole season. Are those sort of stats available?
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