The Alternative NH Trainers Championship 2025/26

[Astralcharmer]

593 races in and changes at the top;

1st Owen 82 pts (0-1-4-13-11)
2nd Bowen 71 pts (0-2-4-11-6)
3rd Skelton 69 pts (0-3-1-12-7)
4th Murphy 60 pts (0-0-2-12-8)
5th Snowden 52 pts (0-2-2-8-5)
6th O’Brien 49 pts (0-2-4-5-4)
7th Nicholls 45 pts (0-1-2-8-4)
8th Henderson 42 pts (0-1-5-5-1)
9th King 37 pts (0-1-2-8-0)
10th= Candlish 31 pts (0-0-0-9-2)
10th= Greatrex 31 pts (0-0-0-9-2)

Top Irish trainer in 29th place is Elliott with 14 pts (0-0-1-2-2)

176 different winning trainers.

[Astralcharmer]

So NH takes a break now until the 16th August.

The table standings are as follows after 624 races;

1st Owen 89 pts (32 wins)
2nd Bowen 76 pts (24 wins)
3rd Skelton 72 pts (24 wins)
4th Murphy 66 pts (24 wins)
5th Snowden 52 pts (17 wins)
6th O’Brien 49 pts (15 wins)
7th Nicholls 45 pts (15 wins)
8th Henderson 42 pts (12 wins)
9th King 37 pts (11 wins)
10th Lacey 31 pts (11 wins)

For the month of July the leading trainers were;

1st Owen 34 pts
2nd Bowen 33 pts
3rd Murphy 14 pts
4th Moffatt 13 pts
5th= McCain 11 pts
5th= King 11 pts
7th Snowden 10 pts
8th= Henderson 9 pts
8th= Elliott (Ire) 9 pts

There have been 180 different winning trainers.

[Astralcharmer]

Leading trainers for August;

1st Bowen 13 pts
2nd Murphy 11 pts
3rd Neville 10 pts
4th= Lacey 8pts
4th= Skelton 8pts

The overall standings are;

1st Owen 96 pts
2nd Bowen 89 pts
3rd Skelton 80 pts
4th Murphy 77 pts
5th Snowden 58 pts
6th O’Brien 53 pts
7th Nicholls 50 pts
8th Henderson 42 pts
9th Lacey 39 pts
10th King 37 pts

Henderson & King the only trainers in the top 10 not to register any points in August.

183 winning trainers so far this season.

[Astralcharmer]

James Owen the first trainer to reach a century in points when Sixty Plus won at Worcester today.

37 winners. 1 Class 2, 4 Class 3, 16 Class 4 & 16 Class 5

[Gladiateur]

Thanks for the updates, @Astralcharmer .

They really do provide an invaluable alternative to the traditional “prizemoney” and “number of winners” models.

[Marlingford]

How are the points calculated? Sorry if it is staring me in the face, but I can’t see it mentioned in this thread.

[Gladiateur]

I’ll leave it to @Astralcharmer to confirm, but by my calculations it’s points per win, as follows:

Class 1 – 6 points (I assume)
Class 2 – 5 points
Class 3 – 4 points
Class 4 – 3 points
Class 5 – 2 points
Class 6 – 1 point

Not sure what happens with Class 7 races, though.

[Astralcharmer]

That’s correct. Quite a simple little system.

Class 6 – 1 point
Class 5 – 2 points
Class 4 – 3 points
Class 3 – 4 points
Class 2 – 5 points
Class 1 (Grade 3) Premier Handicaps – 6 points
Grade 2 – 7 points
Grade 1 – 8 points

I’m hoping this system is more reflective of the season as a whole giving a chance to those UK trainers who run their horses throughout the season.

Something I believe that is totally unfair is deciding the trainers title on such wide ranging prize money for the same class of race especially in the top races and rewarding those who currently benefit from beaten horses that still receive large amounts of prize money some of which weren’t even placed in a race.

[Marlingford]

Thanks for the explanations.

For a long time, I was in favour of the trainers’ championship being decided by prizemoney. Although not perfect, it was a simple measure to understand, and should have correlation with quality of training performance.

However, I agree that it places heavy emphasis on the end of season Festivals, and that it would be good to give greater recognition to those who are contributing to the sport throughout the season. These issues have become more important in recent years as Cheltenham and Aintree have become increasingly dominant.

It will be interesting to see how these alternative figures develop.

[Astralcharmer]

729 races into the season and 187 different winning trainers.

1st Owen 108 pts (40 wins)
2nd Bowen 97 pts (30 wins)
3rd Skelton 80 pts (26 wins)
4th Murphy 77 pts (28 wins)
5th Snowden 58 pts (19 wins)
6th O’Brien 53 pts (17 wins)
7th Nicholls 53 pts (17 wins)
8th Henderson 42 pts (12 wins)
9th Lacey 39 pts (14 wins)
10th King 37 pts (11 wins)

[Astralcharmer]

A quiet week for the Owen stable and Skelton drops into 4th place. Interestingly Skelton sends 11 horses to Worcester today.

Bowen is the only trainer to score double figures every full month since the season began.

The current table standings are as follows

1st Owen 108 pts
2nd Bowen 106 pts
3rd Murphy 82 pts
4th Skelton 80 pts
5th Snowden 62 pts
6th O’Brien 56 pts
7th Nicholls 53 pts
8th Henderson 42 pts
9th Lacey 39 pts
10th King 37 pts

Leading Irish trainer is Elliott in 22nd place with 23 pts.

189 winning trainers this season.

[Coggy]

Thank you for these updates , and for all your hard work.
This is both interesting , and informative.

[Astralcharmer]

Thank you Coggy.

Another week over as no jumps racing in the UK this weekend. The current standings are as follows;

1st Owen 117 pts (44 wins)
2nd Bowen 114 pts (35 wins)
3rd Skelton 89 pts (29 wins)
4th Murphy 85 pts (31 wins)
5th Snowden 62 pts (20 wins)
6th O’Brien 59 pts (19 wins)
7th Nicholls 53 pts (17 wins)
8th Henderson 42 pts (12 wins)
9th Lacey 39 pts (14 wins)
10th Candlish 39 pts (14 wins)

If anyone is wondering why Lacey is ahead of Candlish it’s because Lacey has had a Class 2 winner and Candlish still hasn’t had a winner beyond Class 4.

In the official trainers championship based on prize money Lacey & Candlish are 15th & 18th respectively.

There have been 776 races so far this season with 191 different winning trainers of which 13 were Irish based.

[Astralcharmer]

Leading trainers for September;

1st Bowen 40 pts
2nd Owen 35 pts
3rd Murphy 19 pts
4th Skelton 16 pts
5th= Nicholls 12 pts
5th= Longsdon 12 pts

After 833 races the overall standings are as follows;

1st Owen 131 pts (49 wins)
2nd Bowen 129 pts (39 wins)
3rd Skelton 96 pts (31 wins)
4th Murphy 96 pts (34 wins)
5th Snowden 65 pts (21 wins)
6th Nicholls 62 pts (20 wins)
7th O’Brien 61 pts (20 wins)
8th Henderson 46 pts (13 wins)
9th Candlish 41 pts (15 wins)
10th Lacey 39 pts (14 wins)

2313 points have been shared between 196 winning trainers.

[Astralcharmer]

Another week over. Slight adjustment to the table after O’Brien’s June winner Police Academy was disqualified and Pauling’s horse Harrys Hope was promoted to 1st.

After 873 races (Class 1 x 2. Class 2 x 38. Class 3 x 91. Class 4 x 377. Class 5 x 365)
the top of the leaderboard is as follows;

1st Owen 133 pts (0-1-4-22-23)
2nd Bowen 132 pts (0-5-9-19-7)
3rd Skelton 107 pts (0-5-4-16-9)
4th Murphy 103 pts (0-1-4-20-11)
5th Snowden 79 pts (0-2-5-13-5)
6th Nicholls 62 pts (0-2-3-10-5)
7th O’Brien 58 pts (0-2-4-6-7)
8th Henderson 46 pts (0-1-6-5-1)
9th Candlish 41pts (0-0-0-11-4)
10th Lacey 39 pts (0-1-0-8-5)

For information Owen has run 48 different horses this season and 29 of them have won.

198 different winning trainers so far this season.

[Astralcharmer]

Slight alteration to the scoring system.

Class 6 – 1 pt
Class 5 – 2 pts
Class 4 – 3 pts
Class 3 – 4 pts
Class 2 – 5 pts
Class 1 (Listed) – 6 pts
Class 1 (Premier Handicap) – 7pts
Class 1 (Grade 2) – 8 pts
Class 1 (Grade 1) – 9 pts

[Astralcharmer]

Another week gone and 928 races into the season. The leaderboard is as follows;

1st Owen 144 pts
2nd Bowen 135 pts
3rd Murphy 118 pts
4th Skelton 118 pts
5th Snowden 89 pts
6th O’Brien 69 pts
7th Nicholls 62 pts
8th Lacey 46 pts
9th Henderson 46 pts
10th Candlish 43 pts

201 different winning trainers. Leading Irish trainer Elliott in 25th place with 29 pts

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