News | 24/09/2026 Champions Crowned in the Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship On Friday 18 th September representatives from The Sun and the Racecourse Association (RCA) crowned the winners in the Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship at the finale fixture at Newton Abbot Racecourse. Now in its second year, the Championship is the recognised narrative for jump racing across British racecourses during the summer months. Starting at Worcester Racecourse on Friday 22 nd May, owners, trainers and jockeys competed across four categories, each playing for £8,250 individual prize pots, a 10% increase in prize money from year one of the Championship thanks to enhanced contributions from participating racecourses. The 2026 Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship winners were: Summer Champion Jockey: Harry Skelton Summer Champion Trainer: Dan Skelton Summer Champion Smaller Trainer: Nick Scholfield Summer Champion Owner: Hools & Forces Partnership With the aim of breaking Martin Pipe’s record of 243 winners in a season on the cards, it was a busy summer of racing in the Skelton yard. As a result, Harry Skelton was able to secure the title of Summer Champion Jockey with a final score of 588 points, beating last year’s winner Sean Bowen into second place. Harry elected to donate his £8,250 prize to the Harry Skelton Scholarship – a mentoring programme he established with the Pony Racing Authority to support young pony riders on their journey to becoming professional jockeys. Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship – Winning Jockey – Harry Skelton is presented his cheque by James Graham (The Sun) (L) and Kevin Walsh (RCA) (R) – Newton Abbot Racecourse, Newton Abbot, Devon, England – PHOTO: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK Similarly, with 86 winners across the summer season, Dan Skelton was the dominate force in the Summer Champion Trainer category, securing 310 more points than his nearest rival. Speaking at the finale, Dan Skelton said : “We felt that if we wanted to beat Martin Pipe’s record we’d have to put our foot down and fully embrace summer jumping, and our horses have been phenomenal. Coming into today we’ve had 84 winners which is the fastest we’ve ever got to that number. We’ll have to knuckle down through the winter months to make the record possible, but we couldn’t have done it without the summer horses. “To have the RCA supporting the summer championship is great. I regularly kept an eye on the score sheet and our winning owners group, the Hools & Forces, have a had a great time keeping an eye on it as well. It’s added a different dynamic and it’s something that we’ve fully embraced and that I appreciate very much.” Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship – Summer Champion Trainer – Dan Skelton is presented his cheque by James Graham (The Sun) (L) and Chris Loader (RCA) (R) – Newton Abbot Racecourse, Newton Abbot, Devon, England – PHOTO: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK With a small string of horses in training with Dan Skelton, the Hools & Forces partnership took the Summer Champion Owner title with 84 points, beating JP McManus into second place. At the finale, the partnership was represented by Paul Beck, Phil Cox, Leigh Taylor and Michael Ariss. Paul Beck said : “We typically wouldn’t have had many runners over the summer period, but this has been a lot of fun. We’ve been racing a lot and it’s been a good social thing for the group too. We’re lucky to have horses with the champion trainer and it’s nice to have Harry on board too for obvious reasons. The winnings will inevitably be spent on another horse with Dan, in fact he’s already bought one for us!” Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship – Summer Smaller Champion Owners – Hools and Forces Partnership are presented their cheque by James Graham (The Sun) (L) and Kevin Walsh (RCA) (R) – Newton Abbot Racecourse, Newton Abbot, Devon, England – PHOTO: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK A new initiative for this year’s championship was a series of double points races, the final one being the Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship Finale Handicap Hurdle, the last race on the card at Newton Abbot on finale day. With David Pipe and Nick Scholfield on level points before the race, it was all to play for with any placing being enough to secure the title. After an exciting race, it was Nick Scholfield who came out on top, with Raffles Nobu finishing in second place. Speaking after his title win Scholfield said : “This has been a great initiative, and fair play to the racecourses because it’s not been an easy summer for anyone with the ground, so credit to them for producing good ground as it has allowed us to run our horses plenty. Summer jumping suits certain horses who can’t go on softer ground so it’s given them another life, if they could only race in winter they’d probably never win so it’s good for the horses, good for the staff and keeps everyone busy. “All the staff are texting me now, they’ll be very happy. We’re only a small team so the additional prize money will be well appreciated.” Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship – Summer Smaller Champion Trainer – Nick Scholfield is presented his cheque by James Graham (The Sun) (L) and Chris Loader (RCA) (R) – Newton Abbot Racecourse, Newton Abbot, Devon, England – PHOTO: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK On the Championship, Kevin Walsh, RCA Racing Director said: “The RCA has been delighted with the development of the Summer Jumps Championship in its second year. Having Sun Racing as the headline media partner has enabled us to greatly enhance the coverage and allowed racing fans to closely follow proceedings throughout the summer. Support from participating racecourses has also allowed us to increase the prize money on offer to participants and it is great to see that this has been shared amongst stable staff and invested back into the sport through the Harry Skelton Scholarship and racehorse ownership. “A huge thanks must go to Sun Racing, all of the participating racecourses and members of the Thoroughbred Group for their support of this year’s Championship and the RCA looks forward to developing the initiative even further as it continues to showcase summer jump racing in the future.” Callum Jamieson, Racing Editor at The Sun, said : “We have loved being part of the Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship. It was extremely competitive throughout, none more so than in the smaller trainer category that went down to the wire, and we were glad to keep our loyal readers informed throughout. “It’s important the sport has a narrative all year around and with the relentless Skelton team continuing to dominate all before them and chasing ever more records, it has set the season up nicely for the months to come. “The Sun Racing Summer Jumps Championship looks like it will only continue to go from strength to strength in years to come.”
Curated by Taleb Kabbara · Source: racecourseassociation.co.uk