MANY congratulations to US jumps handler Leslie Young on winning her second successive trainers’ title, saddling 33 winners to Jack Fisher’s 23, although the latter had the upper hand moneywise with earnings of $1,005,760 compared to Young’s $876,900.

The 2023 season, which commenced on March 25th at Aiken, concluded last Saturday at the same South Carolina track where the Young-trained Oscar Winner landed the two-mile, three-furlong handicap hurdle in the hands of Co Wicklow native Conor Tierney.

Leslie’s final runner of the campaign, the 2019 Ribchester gelding Total Joy, was beaten three-quarters of a length into second in the concluding two-mile, one-furlong hurdle for three or four-year olds in which there were just three starters.

Leslie was accompanied to the meeting by her Banbridge-born husband, Paddy Young, the former multiple jumps champion jockey in the States, and son Tom, who also enjoyed Saturday’s awards evening.

Unfortunately, being at boarding school, the couple’s other two children, Rory and CeCe, couldn’t make the 10-hour trip to Aiken. It’s a bit of deserved downtime now for the Young family but re-stocking won’t be far from Leslie’s mind.

Champion jockey

For the second time in three years, Graham Watters, whose point-to-point career in this country was mainly centred on the northern circuit, was crowned champion jockey.

He brought his seasonal total up to 33 with a final-day treble which he completed in the last, the day’s feature contest, on the Todd Wyatt-trained Kiyomori.

A four-year-old gelding by First Samurai, the winner is out of the British-bred King’s Theatre mare The Grey Express who won two bumpers and a maiden hurdle when trained in Ireland by Pat Fahy before she was exported to the States.

Kiyomori should have been ridden by British jockey Harry Beswick, who finished runner-up in the table on 17 wins, but he suffered back and neck injuries in a fall in the second race.

Once he can fly, Beswick will return to England for rehab and is expected to return to the saddle in Britain before heading back to the States.

Irish-breds

There were three division wins for Irish-bred horses. These were the Ribchester gelding Kyogo who assured himself of the three-year-old title when winning for Gordon Elliott and Jack Kennedy at Far Hills last month; the six-year-old Malinas gelding Merry Maker who won the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Hurdle at Belmont in September; and the eight-year-old Casamento chesnut Bercasa who was crowned filly/mare champion.

The French-bred L’Imperator, who was beaten half a length into second in the Lonesome Glory, took the title as champion novice.

The Katherine Neilson-trained Bercasa was one of 10 winners who ran in the colours of Irvin Naylor who ended the season as leading owner for the seventh time.