The Alternative NH Trainers Championship 2025/26

[Ex RubyLight]

Excellent work Astralcharmer. Especially the points to win ratio chart is an interesting one.
Good to read Alan’s post about the trainers close to the M5.

[Astralcharmer]

Thanks Ex RubyLight. Yes I hadn’t appreciated the proximity of those stables to the M5 until Alan’s interesting post. It does look as though the power base for UK NH racing has definitely moved.

I’m not a follower of flat racing as such but with 9 racecourses in Yorkshire of which 6 are flat only I’m guessing this is where most trainers interests lie in that part of the world?

[Astralcharmer]

Going back to my points based system for last season. There were 191 Class 1 races last season so giving these races more weight in terms of points but ensuring one graded race wasn’t worth more than the next you could use the following points based system:

Class 1 Grade 1 – 25 points
Class 1 Grade 2 – 20 points
Class 1 Premier H’cap – 15 points
Class 1 Listed – 10 points

For the remaining classes of race these would be scored as follows;

Class 2 – 4 points
Class 3 – 3 points
Class 4 – 2 points
Class 5 – 1 point

Had that system been in place in 2025/26 the trainers championship would have looked like this;

1st Skelton 931 pts (194 wins)
2nd Henderson 472 pts (87 wins)
3rd Nicholls 397 pts (94 wins)
4th Murphy 370 pts (144 wins)
5th Pauling 339 pts (94 wins)
6th Mullins 300 pts (16 wins)
7th Snowden 243 pts (86 wins)
8th F O’Brien 210 pts (82 wins)
9th G&J Moore 191 pts (57 wins)
10th Derham 190 pts (53 wins)

This gives those winning at the highest level more points but not have it skewed by prize money for one particular race (say the National) and placed horses who in my view should have no baring whatsoever on the trainers title.

Skelton won 31 Class 1 races in 2025/26 with the next best Henderson with 14 and Mullins with 13. Henderson won 73 races at Class 2 or lower whereas Mullins won just 3. My points based system reflects that more than the current system.

[admin]

This was interesting and I think a better system than the official one as it isn’t skewed by a few wins in high value races.

[Ex RubyLight]

Great stuff. I see no reason why your system (or one very similar to yours) shouldn’t be used in the future. I really like it since I can fully understand it. It would prevent such late season charges we’ve seen from Mullins in the past….

[Astralcharmer]

Thank you for the feedback. This system would give Mullins an opportunity to still win the title but it would require more horses aimed at Class 1 races below Grade 1. It’s not as though he doesn’t have enough horses capable of winning Grade 2s and Premier Handicaps this side of the Irish Sea.

Not that I’m a betting man but it might open up a few different bets on points scored either monthly or by season? Just throwing it out there.

[Author]

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