5 Takeaways from the 2025 Jumps Season

With the coming of May, we broadly see the end of the jumps season across the UK and Ireland. The likes of Wille Mullins will pop up here and there with a few entries on the flat racing cards across the summer, but, by and large, it’s time to reflect on what has happened across another season.

There are, of course, many narratives that have popped up since last autumn, but we have picked five of the most intriguing below:

Mullins, Mullins, Mullins

It was just one race, but you can reflect on the finishing order of the 2025 Grand National and ask what it tells us about the current state of horse racing: 1^st position Nick Rockett (trainer Willie Mullins); 2^nd I Am Maximus (T. Wille Mullins), 3^rd Grangeclare (T. Willie Mullins), 5^th Meetingofthewaters )T. Willie Mullins), 7^th Minella Cocooner (T. Wille Mullins). Five of the top seven finishers and the first three across the line were trained by the Mullins machine. It was the cherry on top of yet another season where he dominated on both sides of the Irish Sea. The question is whether this is something that should be celebrated or whether it’s indicative of a wider malaise.

Cheltenham Thrills and Spills

Despite the dominance of you-know-who, there were lots of shocks at Cheltenham that made for box office viewing. Golden Ace beat the Big 2 in the Champion Hurdle, Gavin Cromwell’s Inothewayyourethinking showed Mullins is beatable by storming to the Gold Cup, and Poniros was available at 100/1 and above in online horse betting markets before taking the Triumph Hurdle. Yet, despite the thrills, there were some downsides: ticket sales were down significantly as punters stayed away, many of whom cited extreme prices for accommodation as the reason.

A Gloomy Low-Key Boxing Day

The Boxing Day races remain one of the best traditions in jumps racing, with meetings taking place across the UK and Ireland – it’s unmatched globally in terms of the volume of elite racing held on a single day. Yet, the centre of gravity feels like it is shifting away from those traditions. Most notably, there is the King George VI Chase, which was once almost on a level with the Gold Cup. The days of Kauto Star going for glory while the Christmas turkey was still fresh. Ask any casual punter if they can recall which horse was the starting favourite for the 2024 King George. It was the rather unremarkable Spillane’s Tower. The race has become decidedly low-key.

A Shift to Ireland

One of the reasons why the (relatively) mediocre cards have continued at Kempton and elsewhere on Boxing Day is that many of the big hitters from Ireland are staying at home. It’s not just Mullins, either. The allure of the Leopardstown Christmas Festival, the Dublin Racing Festival (February), and the Punchestown Festival (April) is plain to see. And we’d argue that their popularity is on the rise. If you take the Dublin Festival, for instance, it’s the perfect warm-up event for Cheltenham. There is simply no comparison in Britain. It’s a big issue for British racing to address should they wish to wrestle back dominance from the Irish racing world.

Reasons to Celebrate

Years from now, it might be rightly appreciated the job that ITV has done to promote jumps racing. Yes, it is in the broadcaster’s interest to bring in viewers, but the coverage – and its auxiliary presence on social media – has been outstanding in terms of bringing in younger viewers and casual fans. Viewing figures were up to 1.8 million for the Gold Cup, which was up by 200,000 on 2024. It’s hugely encouraging, as interest in the sport, especially from younger people, is key to the future of what happens on the racecourses across Britain.