British Jumps Racing Round Up

The British jumps season will not be back until July at the earliest but with the main body of the season completed it has been announced that this seasons champion jockey will be Brian Hughes for the first time in his career.

The 34 year old rider, after the Cheltenham festival was leading four time champion jockey Richard Johnson by 19 wins but with the season being suspended since March 17th, Hughes' 141 victories was enough to see him crowned the Champion for the 2019/20 season.

The actual jumps racing season was supposed to be completed on April 25th at Sandown where the presentation with the trophy would have taken place but it will now be rescheduled to when racing resumes.

(Credit At The Races) Hughes said: “It has always been a dream of mine to become champion jockey, so to have finally achieved it is fantastic.

“It is obviously a little disappointing that we haven’t been able to see out the season as we were all looking forward to doing so and there were some big race days to look forward to, but current circumstances are out of all our hands, and racing’s no different.

“I’ve had another great season with 141 winners and I cannot thank all the trainers, owners, stable staff and my family who have continued to support me and I hope everyone is staying safe at this time.

“Like everyone else, I can’t wait to get back out there riding and will be doing everything I can to keep hold of the title next season.”

The rider also landed the Northern Jockeys title with him gaining the majority of his wins in the north of Britain with 110 out of his 141 victories being north of Market Rasen.

Across the season there are other titles and awards that are to played for and the Conditional Jockeys championship this season was won by the smart Jonjo O'Neill Jn, who landed 61 victories this season and overall finished 10th in the overall jockeys title.

The youngster finished 20 wins ahead of his next rival Ben Jones and he said: “I feel very lucky that this year has gone so well. It’s all thanks to my main supporters, my dad and the Tizzards, who have been so good to me this season.

“I’m delighted to have won the conditional championship, it’s what I set out to do at the start of the season and there’s an illustrious roll of honour – so it’s nice to be included on it.”

Nicky Henderson for the sixth time in his career managed to gain the Trainers Championship with his total of £2,533,862 in prize-money seeing him finish £192,550 clear of last seasons winner Paul Nicholls.

The Seven Barrows handler notched up 118 winners during the entire season with his four at the Cheltenham festival topping off a successful campaign for him and his team.

He said: “It’s a great pity that we haven’t been able to see the season out and it looked like the race was going down to the wire again at Sandown Park.

“But all of us know that the current situation is bigger than racing and something that everyone in the country is having to deal with and face.

“I would like to thank all of the owners that have enabled us to win this year’s trainers’ championship – it really is a testament to them and the horses that we have in our yard.

“Seven Barrows as a team are extremely proud of this title and my staff have been amazing, as they always are, and are doing everything they can to make sure all the horses are looked after during this time.

“I know that they and everyone else in the sport will be raring to go with the next season, as soon as it’s safe to start racing again.”

Finally, JP McManus was the easy winner of the owners title, racking up huge amounts of prize money and finishing £1.39 million ahead of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.