VERY few things are greeted with almost unanimous positivity in the world of racing, but Jack Kennedy getting his hands on a first Irish National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship trophy this past spring probably fell into that rare category.
A season earlier at Naas in January 2023, the elite-level rider from Co Kerry held a 20-winner lead in the title standings only to break his leg for a cruel fifth occasion in a season-ending fall. Paul Townend made the most of the leader’s absence to mop up his fifth straight championship, and sixth overall.
The 2023/’24 campaign was one dominated by the eyewatering firepower of Willie Mullins, yet it will also go down as the season when Kennedy - riding for the champion trainer’s biggest rival, Gordon Elliott - reached the promised land.
Townend was grittily chipping away at Kennedy’s lead all through the Punchestown Festival, and some suspense was added to the meeting when Kennedy was ruled out of the final day of the season through suspension. However, it wouldn’t be enough.
Confirmation that the 25-year-old had sealed the championship on the final day was an extremely popular result on track. The Punchestown crowd clearly appreciated the injury hell that Kennedy had been through and the mental toughness he had shown in bouncing back from a series of injuries that could easily have floored others.
With the backing of Elliott, Kennedy managed to amass 12 Grade 1 winners from the beginning of the 2023/’24 campaign to now, including three top-level victories on Teahupoo, as well as a hat-trick of Grade 1s at both the Leopardstown Christmas Festival and Aintree Festival.
Cruel blow
Having put on an exhibition of his brilliant best aboard Brighterdaysahead in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown on November 23rd, it was gutting to see the champion jockey suffer a sixth leg break at the Fairyhouse Winter Festival only seven days later. No doubt he will be pushing hard to return as quickly as possible from this latest setback, and his past experience of successfully overcoming such dismal fortune will surely give hope he will be back to the top of his game in due course.
In terms of the jockeys’ title battle at Punchestown, Mullins sent out 10 winners at the finale meeting - a fine return but still well short of the record 19 he saddled at the 2021 meeting and 17 a year earlier. That didn’t help Townend’s cause and he came up marginally short in his bid to retain his championship on a closing scoreline of 123-121. That said, the latter figure still goes down as Townend’s best ever for a single season and would have been a high enough total to win all bar one of the previous nine championships.
When looking at his body of work over the course of the entire campaign, it is absolutely in the conversation to be considered one of the most impressive single-season CVs any National Hunt rider has ever assembled.
A total of 23 Grade 1 winners in the season is understood to be more than any other jump jockey has achieved, beating Ruby Walsh’s haul of 22 in 2015/’16.
When partnering I Am Maximus to victory at Aintree, Townend became only the second rider in history – and the first since 1930 – to win the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National in the same campaign.
He was leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival with six winners, notched up four-timers at both the Dublin Racing Festival and Aintree Festival before departing the Punchestown Festival with a haul of six. What made the efforts of Kennedy and Townend all the more admirable at Punchestown was seeing just how battered and bruised they were when walking in and out of the parade ring after each mount.
It was evident that they were riding through their fair share of physical pain from injuries accumulated in recent weeks, and the extent to which Kennedy was fighting injury became apparent when he arrived with his foot in a boot on the final day when not in action. National Hunt riders really are built differently.
The 2023/’24 season belonged to Willie Mullins in many ways, but the exploits of two riders who could hold their own in any era of elite race-riding are worthy of major respect. With Kennedy just 25 and Townend 34, they are bound to set the standard for a long time to come.
WE are still living in Willie’s world in 2024. In a season that saw him break into triple figures for Cheltenham Festival winners and bag a first British trainers’ championship, the Mullins machine remained utterly dominant on home soil too.
Ballyburn, one of a whopping eight Grade 1 winners for Closutton at the 2024 Punchestown Festival, also brought his handler to a landmark when scoring at the end-of-season meeting. Courtesy of that victory, Mullins became Ireland’s outright winning-most trainer on 4,378 winners - surpassing another legendary figure in the shape of Dermot Weld.
The 68-year-old smashed his own record for most winners trained in an Irish National Hunt season, with 257 come the end of the campaign. That is 20 more than his own previous record from a season earlier.
For only the second time in his career, Mullins broke the €7 million prize money mark domestically and victory for Il Etait Temps on day three at Punchestown saw Willie Mullins break his own world record of 34 Grade 1 wins in a single season.
His haul reached 39 top-level winners by the end of the week. All in all, of the 37 Grade 1s run in Ireland last season, Mullins won 25 of them, while also finishing second in seven of the 12 top-level events he did not win.
Dublin demolition job
The 2024 Dublin Racing Festival was one-way traffic again. Mullins captured all eight Grade 1 races at the meeting, though the winners were split amongst seven different owners and three jockeys.
Despite several short-priced defeats with the likes of Gaelic Warrior (1/3), Galopin Des Champs (1/2), Mistergif (evens), Unknown Entity (evens), Dinoblue (11/10), Allegorie De Vassy (11/8), Anotherway (11/8), Jasmin De Vaux (6/4), Blizzard Of Oz (13/8), Spindleberry (7/4), Aurora Vega (15/8), Blood Destiny (15/8), Fishery Lane (15/8) and Port Joulain (5/2), he still managed to reach double figures once again at the Punchestown Festival with 10 winners.
The Easter period also yielded 10 winners for the champion team between Fairyhouse and Cork.
An early-winter stable tour at the Mullins base last month suggested there is no end in sight in terms of the depth of quality horses that continues to roll from the Co Carlow base. With the exception of the King George at Kempton, he holds nearly all the major Christmas-race favourites. We are living in rare times with an operator of historic proportions.
FOR a staggering 21st time, J.P. McManus was crowned Ireland’s champion owner in the 2023/’24 season and this is surely one of the most exciting crops of top jumping performers he has ever had on his hands.
Across the last 12 months, the proud Co Limerick native has amassed 13 Grade 1s and his squad is dripping with potential heading into the new year.
That was never better evidenced than when his two second-season chasers, Fact To File and Spillane’s Tower, fought out the finish of last month’s John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase - an early favourite in the race of the season conversation. It was a thriller.
In seeing off two of the best senior staying chasers around, Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow, the pair of rising stars put down serious markers for Cheltenham Gold Cup honours and could equally be set for a major festive period.
I Am Maximus provided the green and gold silks with a third win in the Randox Grand National at Aintree, helping him to claim another British owners’ title, and McManus secured a five-timer at that meeting courtesy of other feature-race wins with Its On The Line, Mystical Power, Jonbon and Inothewayurthinkin.
The latter was a particularly significant winner as a homebred Grade 1 winner with wife Noreen, enhancing an already sublime page that was boosted by Limerick Lace’s win in the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham.
Even away from the bright team he has in training in Britain, the most successful owner in the history of the Cheltenham Festival is spoilt for choice with exciting talent on home soil - highlighted by wins in the last few weeks for youngsters Majborough, Kel Histoire, Shuffle The Deck and Goraibhmaithagat, while beaten runners such as Karoline Banbou and Kaid d’Authie appear to be thought extremely highly of by Willie Mullins.
McManus makes considerable investment in the sport and 2024 was a year in which he reaped rewards at the highest levels for that backing.
WHILE it seemed like Willie Mullins’ presence was everywhere you looked in 2024, there were still green shoots for other operations through the year - double-green shoots when it came to Tom Gibney.
What a job he did with BoyleSports Irish Grand National hero Intense Raffles, his first horse for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, in capturing Fairyhouse’s Easter highlight. Too much shouldn’t be read into his defeat on his seasonal reappearance over hurdles earlier this month and an Aintree bid looks the prime target for 2025.
Elsewhere in the Irish training ranks, Gavin Cromwell continued his ascent through the ranks with 72 domestic winners - his best return yet for a single season in the year he registered a Cheltenham Festival double with siblings Inothewayurthinkin and Limerick Lace.
It may have gone slightly under the radar given all bar one came outside graded company at the meeting, but a five-timer at the 2024 Punchestown Festival was quite the feat too.
Bargain buy
Speaking of Punchestown success stories, what about Anthony McCann and Familiar Dreams? The 4,000gns bargain buy out of Roger Varian’s yard was winless in her first five starts but burst into life in early 2024, winning four on the bounce - including a Grade 3 bumper at Punchestown - before her sale at the same meeting for €310,000 to Qatar Racing.
Ross O’Sullivan’s breakout period was probably the story of the National Hunt summer, highlighted by a four-timer at the Galway Festival during a red-hot run for the progressive yard. That rolled on to the Listowel Harvest Festival, where Cheltenham runner-up Eagles Reign captured the Liam Healy Memorial Lartigue Hurdle.
The 2023/’24 season went down as Philip Rothwell’s most successful yet in terms of domestic winners, a total of 42 jumping up significantly from the 18 he’d sent out a season earlier.
It wouldn’t be difficult to mention multiple trainers who experienced growth in one area or another in 2024, but handlers such as Paul Flynn, Mark Fahey and Ian Donoghue had fine campaigns under both codes, while Jimmy Mangan’s back-to-back Grade 1 wins with Spillane’s Tower were among the most popular of the season. Ted Walsh operated at a highly impressive 20% strike rate across his flat and National Hunt runners in 2024, with his most jumps winners in a calendar year for nearly a decade (nine).
Finally, Martin Brassil, while out of luck with Fastorslow in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, got his revenge on Galopin Des Champs back at Punchestown for his second consecutive local Gold Cup triumph.
It’s unquestionably tough for trainers taking on colossal outfits like Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott in Ireland, but their presence is surely pushing others to drive up their standards in order to surivive and compete.
ONE of the most stunning developments of the entire National Hunt year didn’t happen on the racecourse.
The surprise decision from Andy and Gemma Brown to hold a dispersal sale for their 29 horses ended up being a remarkable watch at Tattersalls Ireland. Total turnover of €5.29 million, with a median price of €65,000, was surely more than anyone could have expected.
The sale took place in early February, and many of the lots sold were young performers who still have the chance to prove themselves in high grades, but it’s hard to say that those who have run since have lived up to their price tags so far.
Grade 1-winning novice hurdler Caldwell Potter (pictured below) didn’t run last season for Paul Nicholls after his jaw-dropping €740,000 sale and, while a smart winner on his chasing bow at Carlisle, was beaten 13 lengths at Cheltenham on his most recent start over fences.
Fil Dor, bought for €620,000 to stay with Elliott in the colours of Robcour, failed to catch fire at the spring festivals and still needs to prove himself in top company.
Pied Piper finished a fine third in the County Hurdle on his first start after his €570,000 sale, though the rest of his year didn’t continue along that trajectory, while €510,000 buy Staffordshire Knot ran with credit to finish second in Grade 1 company at Aintree behind Brighterdaysahead and needs to build on that over fences now to reach a similar level.
British acquisitions
Mighty Bandit switched to Warren Greatrex for €420,000 and has cut little ice over hurdles, his sole win since coming in a flat maiden at Pontefract, while Firm Footings (€330,000) and Doctor Elvis (€260,000) have yet to race since their sale.
Imagine (€320,000) was pulled up on his first and only start for Harry Derham in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, and Molly’s Mango (€170,000) was out of luck in her first two runs for the same yard.
To his credit, Sa Fureur, who was bought by Bective Stud for €330,000, looks a chaser on the up based on his listed handicap chase win at Navan last time, and finished fourth in the Grand Annual at the Cheltenham Festival. The same owners’ Chemical Energy (€215,000) has shown mixed form.
Of the other two six-figure lots, Doctor Bravo (€155,000) has unfortunately died and No Time To Wait (€125,000) stopped quickly on his chasing bow at Kilbeggan before finishing 15 and a half lengths off Firefox at Down Royal.
The sale certainly hasn’t proved a goldmine for new connections as of yet. The whole episode made for remarkable viewing.