Title Talk!

I always enjoy looking through the jockeys and trainers statistics, so as you can imagine I was in heaven this morning as I was reading through the Racing Post's review of the 2010/11 jumps season.  There were a few surprises in there and the one that probably most caught my eye was the owner's table.  Congratulations to Trevor Hemmings for being champion owner, obviously this was due largely to Ballabriggs Grand National success and he finished just ahead of J P McManus, who had no fewer than 650 runners during the course of the season...only two trainers in the entire list had more runners than that!  For that statistic alone we should applaud J P, who is a massive supporter of racing in this country - without owners such as him our sport would be much the poorer.

A P McCoy was crowned champion jockey for an amazing sixteenth time and finished ahead of his rivals not only in terms of winners, but in prize money as well so certainly no arguments there.  The trainers table was certainly a little closer with Paul Nicholls beating Nicky Henderson to the title by little over £200,000, but the Henderson team turned out more winners.  This has been a bee in my bonnet for some time, and I have to say that I think the trainers championship should be decided on winners like the jockeys.  In what other sports can you theoretically not win any games, yet still win the title?...there can't be many!

David once again performed well to finish fifth in the trainers championship, directly ahead of trainers who had between one hundred and two hundred more runners during the course of the season...it just goes to show how well he does with the ammunition at his disposal.

The Irish titles were won by Willie Mullins who won close to an impressive £2.5 million from 100 winners, while his young stable jockey Paul Townend despite a couple of nasty injuries managed to hold on for his first jockey's title.

*****

I see there is fighting talk in the Racing Post today as trainer Richard Hannon tells the world that Frankel will have to learn to race "properly" to beat his star milers Canford Cliffs and Dick Turpin.  Full marks to Hannon for wanting to take on Henry Cecil's flying machine, but it makes you wonder whether he was watching the 2,000 Guineas the other day!  His two are top class horses in their own right, but it is certainly a brave statement to make...whatever the outcome, I can't wait to watch the race!