Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-10-20
Looking for the current Futurity Trophy?
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See the Futurity Trophy live hubThe short answer
The British champion Flat trainer is the trainer whose horses win the most prize money in Britain over the calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December. The number of winners plays no part. In principle a yard with a hundred handicap wins can finish behind one with a handful of big Group race wins, because a single top prize can be worth more than dozens of small ones.
That catches people out, because the jockeys' title, presented at Ascot on British Champions Day, is a count of winners. The trainers' title uses a different measure and different dates, so it is still open after the riders have been crowned.
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The rule: total prize money won in Britain
Great British Racing's championships page says the Flat Trainers' Championship is "judged on total prize money won over a set period of time", and gives the period as 1 January to 31 December. The British Horseracing Board confirmed prize money as the basis in 2007, in a statement on the principles behind the sport's seasons and championships.
The calendar year
The title has not always followed the calendar. According to Wikipedia's list of champion trainers, it ran from November to the following October until 2016 and has run from January to December since. We found that change in one source only, so take the date as Wikipedia's account.
Because it runs to 31 December, the trainers' title stays open after the jockeys' and owners' titles have closed. Money won at Doncaster in late October, or on the all-weather in December, still goes on the table.
What counts
The official page spells out neither of the next two points; both come from press coverage.
Place money counts as well as wins. In August 2016 The Sunday Times included Highland Reel's second and Sir Isaac Newton's fourth at York in O'Brien's British total, and Sporting Life's 2022 title table listed wins, places and a single prize-money figure for each trainer.
Prize money won outside Britain does not count. The same Sunday Times column said O'Brien's Belmont Derby and French Guineas prizes did not add to his British earnings, and Racing Post in 2023 described O'Brien's total as his earnings "in Britain". Ireland has its own trainers' championship with its own table.
Ties
We found no published tie-break rule on the championship pages, in the 2007 BHB statement or in the list of past champions. The two names against 2023, John and Thady Gosden, are there because they hold a joint training licence.
Why the jockeys' title works differently
The champion jockey is the rider with the most winners, and money plays no part. The window is shorter, from Guineas weekend at Newmarket to British Champions Day at Ascot. The Irish Field reported the move to that window in March 2015, under the headline that it divided opinion.
There is also an Annual Flat Jockeys' Championship over the full calendar year, but the title presented at Ascot is the seasonal one.
The Owners' Championship is decided on prize money, like the trainers' title, but it uses the jockeys' dates and so closes at Ascot too. That leaves the trainers' table as the only senior Flat championship still open once Champions Day is over. So the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster, Britain's final Group 1 of the Flat season, can still decide it.
How close it has been
Every year below is in Wikipedia's list of champions, and 2021 and 2023 to 2025 are also confirmed by Sporting Life or Racing Post.
| Year | Champion trainer |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Aidan O'Brien |
| 2017 | Aidan O'Brien |
| 2018 | John Gosden |
| 2019 | John Gosden |
| 2020 | John Gosden |
| 2021 | Charlie Appleby |
| 2022 | Charlie Appleby |
| 2023 | John and Thady Gosden |
| 2024 | Aidan O'Brien |
| 2025 | Aidan O'Brien |
Some years were one-sided. Balding was runner-up to Appleby in 2021, about £0.5 million behind, and more than £3 million behind O'Brien in 2024.
Others went late. In 2022 Appleby went into Champions Day on £5,371,491 and William Haggas on £5,241,051, about £130,000 apart, and Sporting Life wrote that the title was "going to go down to the wire". Appleby held on. In 2023 the Gosdens left Ascot on £6,923,769 to O'Brien's £6,456,282, a lead of £467,487 on the day Trawlerman won the Long Distance Cup, and that lead stood.
O'Brien won in 2025 ahead of the Gosdens, with Balding a close third. Hawk Mountain won the Futurity Trophy for him that year, and reports from the day say O'Brien was presented with the trainers' trophy at Doncaster afterwards.
The 2026 race: Balding, O'Brien and the Futurity
Andrew Balding went into British Champions Day on 17 October £108,626 clear of Aidan O'Brien and came out of it £82,494 behind, on Racing Post's figures. Mount Atlas won the Long Distance Cup for Balding, but Minnie Hauk's win in the Fillies & Mares put O'Brien in front (the British Champions Day 2026 review has every race).
Balding, chasing a first title, told Racing Post: "The Futurity Trophy will be the deciding race."
What the Futurity pays
The William Hill Futurity Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday 24 October is a Group 1 over 1m for two-year-olds, with £275,000 guaranteed. O'Brien has won it a record 12 times, and the Futurity Trophy race guide lists the recent winners. The Racing Post card gives the first six prizes as:
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | £155,952.50 |
| 2nd | £59,125 |
| 3rd | £29,590 |
| 4th | £14,740 |
| 5th | £7,397.50 |
| 6th | £3,712.50 |
A worked example
These sums use the Racing Post prize money and assume the gap at the off is the one Racing Post reported after Champions Day. Balding has one horse left in, Gran Dia, who won his only start in a novice race at Salisbury on 1 October. If Gran Dia won, Balding would collect £155,952.50 and go £73,458.50 ahead. If an O'Brien runner finished second, its £59,125 would cut that lead to about £14,333. Add an O'Brien third (£29,590) and O'Brien would be back in front by £15,256.50, before any fourth, fifth or sixth place is counted.
O'Brien had 11 of the 17 horses left in at the confirmation stage on 19 October, and a one-two-three would be worth £244,667.50 to one yard. The field can still change. Racing Post says O'Brien's team depends on which horses go to France for the Criterium International and the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, and any British prize money either yard wins before Saturday moves the gap. Noble Exhibit, the Beresford Stakes winner, is favourite in every report we read, and the Futurity Trophy guide covers the field.
After Doncaster
The title runs to 31 December, but neither yard expects much more. The Irish Times reports that O'Brien is likely to have few if any British runners after the Futurity, and Balding said his yard is "usually quiet in November and December".
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