Tuesday, 20th October 2025
In ATC today….
The Nick Pullen Trophy is awarded to the jockey who performed best in the biggest turf handicaps across the season….
…. Ryan Moore won it in 2022 & 2023 before being usurped by Oisin Murphy in 2024….
…. This time around we have another new name engraved onto this prestigious silverware….
Oh…. and there’s a special mention in dispatches for a young rider who did well with little and will only get better….
Read on….
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Ahem…. there’s no actual trophy – but we do have a winner….
Oisin Murphy won the 2025 jockeys championship….
…. but that’s based on rides in all turf flat races run between 3rd May and 18th October….
My interest is the handicaps – and the Heritage handicaps most of all….
These are the most important handicaps on my programme….
…. think the Lincoln, the Ebor, the Bunbury Cup, the Wokingham, the Stewards’ Cup….
These are the handicaps that everybody wants to win….
…. the most valuable showcase handicap events run at the top meetings held at the C1 tracks….
Which jockey did best in that select and – with big fields generally going to post – most competitive set of races?
That’s who walks away with the kudos of winning the Nick Pullen Trophy (albeit no actual silverware)….
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This might seem like a slight flight of fancy….
But if the official handicapper has done his job, all handicaps should end with all runners finishing in a dead heat….
Of course, they don’t….
…. one reason for that is that ‘on-the-day’ conditions and circumstances advantage some horses and disadvantage others….
…. and the jockey is one such important variable….
Any exercise that helps quantify how much of an advantage (or not) a jockey might represent in the top-end handicaps is a useful exercise in my book....
Of course, there are many things to consider….
…. but bare overall performance is the logical place to begin....
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Points system….
There’s an award called the Longines World’s Best Jockey. It works thus….
You take the world’s 100 best G1 races – nominated by the Rankings Committee. And you award jockeys points for top 3 finishes....
A win earns 12-points. A 2nd gets 6-points. A 3rd is awarded 4-points. At the end of the cycle, the jockey with the most points is the champ....
I took that methodology and tinkered with it. For my purposes, it works like this….
I only include Heritage handicaps with 12+ runners….
1st place = 12-points
2nd place = 8-points
3rd place = 6-points
4th place (16+ runners) = 4-points
5th place (20+ runners) = 2-points
6th place (24+ runners) = 2-points
Then I applied that points scale to the results of the 40 qualifying Heritage handicap races run during the 2025 season….
…. a process which delivers a set of jockey rankings stripped of extraneous ‘noise’....
It’s nothing fancy. There’s no genius involved. Anybody can do it….
…. but nobody was doing it for the races of most interest to me – the Heritage handicaps….
These rankings give me insight into the riders who had most positive effect in this season’s ultra-competitive Heritage handicaps….
…. and that’s something worth having more insight about in my book....
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Here’s what I found….
The table below shows the top 10 Heritage handicap performers in the weighing room this season – in terms of total points earned….
Tom Marquand tops the standings with 118 points….
He’s rated 14th in the Longines World’s Best Jockey Rankings….
…. just 43 on the TRC Global Jockey Rankings….
…. and he was 5th in the 2025 jockeys championship….
…. but nobody bettered him in the Heritage handicaps, and those seven individual wins represent quite the haul – all of them produced for trainer William Haggas….
The next five riders in my standings – Oisin Murphy (82 points), William Buick (62 points), Daniel Tudhope (54 points), Silvestre De Sousa (50 points), and P J McDonald (44 points) – finished 1st, 6th, 8th, 19th & 20th in the overall Jockeys Championship standings….
It’s not an exact correlation – but four of the top-10 in the Championship made the top-6 in my standings….
Ryan Moore won the Nick Pullen Trophy in 2022 & 2023 – before being usurped by Oisin Murphy in 2024….
This time around he could only manage 7th – partly due to a spell on the sidelines through injury and partly due to not taking too many rides in the Heritage handicaps when he was fit….
Moore has won millions in prize money this term (as per usual), but I know he’ll be gutted not to have regained the trophy that really matters to him most….
…. but there’s always next year, Ryan – and you can’t win them all, mate….
Champion Apprentice Jockey Joe Leavy deserves a mention too….
He didn’t make the top-10 standings, and he only took seven qualifying rides….
…. but he scored 24 points with those few opportunities….
Few apprentices do that….
…. and the suggestion is that he’s good enough to mix it with the big boys in the weighing room….
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Total points earned probably isn’t the best metric for establishing a concrete pecking order. It doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s more to learn....
If rider A has three times more qualifying rides than Rider B then it stands to reason that Rider A is better placed to accumulate a bigger volume of points across a season….
Points per ride (PpR) might be a more instructive measure. It levels the playing field.
…. and when that metric is applied to our top-10 riders it produces results as per the table below....
Colin Keane & Daniel Tudhope move up the rankings on this metric….
…. whilst Oisin Murphy & William Buick fall back off the pace a bit….
Tom Marquand remains out in front – his PpR figure dominating the rest….
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And we’re not finished yet in our search for the deserving recipient of this season’s highly-prized Nick Pullen Trophy….
The final metric I want to look at is percentage of opponents beaten….
It’s a different kind of metric. It isn’t quite so concerned with who finished first or second in a specific race – but instead takes a wider view of entire placings across the entire series of races under review….
Daniel Tudhope, Oisin Murphy & P J McDonald should all be commended for smashing through the 60% threshold….
…. which – in my book – amounts to a stellar score on this metric….
Champion jockey Murphy’s performance was particularly noteworthy in that he sustained his score across a far greater number of rides than the other two….
The other rider to score at 60%+ was Tom Marquand….
…. and given that he was so far ahead of the rest in terms of total points gained….
…. and scored so well on the points per ride metric….
…. I think it’s clear….
The numbers don’t lie. That’s for sure….
…. and I have no hesitation in naming Tom Marquand as the winner of the Nick Pullen Trophy….
…. for 2025….
Take a bow, Tom….
You might well be a long way from World number one on current standings….
…. but you are my number one this time around….
…. and having scooped the jealously-coveted Nick Pullen Trophy….
…. it is surely only a matter of time before you truly announce yourself on the global stage….
Onwards and upwards….
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That’s all for today….
Back tomorrow….
Meantime – contact me at – nick.pullen@spapublishinggroup.co.uk
Stay tuned….
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