Impressive Edgcote winner Outmaster has been judged the leading four-year-old from the 2024/25 season.
The Gina Andrews-trained son of Masterstroke has been allotted a rating of 103 by Martin Harris, whose figures for every horse that ran last season will appear in the annual Point-to-Point & Hunter Chase Yearbook, which will be printed in November. Further details of publication date and price have yet to be announced.
After comfortably beating the Bradley Gibbs-trained Jet Steel (93) at Edgcote, Outmaster (pictured above under Jack Andrews) was sent to Tattersalls Cheltenham where he was bought by Paul Nicholls for £90,000. Jet Steel has subsequently joined Tim Vaughan for a career under rules.
Joint-second on Harris’s list of four-year-olds are the Tom Lacey-trained pair of In A Sonnet and Outofafrika, who are each rated 95. In A Sonnet made a winning debut at Maisemore Park and was then sold at Goffs Aintree Sale to Willie Mullins for £135,000, while Outofafrika scored at the first time of asking under Gina Andrews at Guilsborough.
In A Sonnet (Sean O'Connor) on his way to a berth at the yard of trainer Willie Mullins (Ce)
Two horses share the position of leading five-year-old point-to-pointer with ratings of 109. Great Valley, another son of Masterstroke, scored four times for trainer Neil Gittins and rider Guy Sankey, while Glancing Hill, by Passing Glance, won twice at Edgcote for trainer Fran Poste.
Glancing Hill scoring in style under Zac Baker at Edgcote for trainer Fran Poste (Neale Blackburn)
Joker De Mai, who is in the care of licensed trainer Harry Derham for owner/rider David Maxwell, topped the table of six-year-olds. An easy win in a Leicester hunters’ chase, when conceding weight to the useful A Jet Of Our Own, was the highlight of Joker De Mai’s season. The son of Balko later fell early in the Randox Foxhunters’ Chase and then pulled up at Stratford. He gained a rating of 125, four more than Milan Forth, whose sole appearance in Britain was when finishing seventh in Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase. Cheltenham evening meeting hunters’ chase winner Crawter, who also won four point-to-points, was given a rating of 119 to take third spot.
Great Valley (Guy Sankey) who shared the leading five-year-olds' role with Glancing Hill (Sweet Photography)
Another Irish hunter, the Gordon Elliott-trained Willitgoahead (135), heads Harris’s list of seven-year-olds following his excellent third in the St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham. The son of Getaway joined a clean sweep by Irish horses as victory went to Wonderwall from Its On The Line.
Ihandaya (129) and Il Pino (127) sit behind Willigoahead in their age category.