Timeform has named Gaelic Warrior its Horse of the Season for 2025-26, with the Willie Mullins-trained chaser recognised after winning both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Punchestown Gold Cup.
Gaelic Warrior Named Timeform’s Jumps Horse of the Season After Gold Cup double
Gaelic Warrior has been named Timeform’s Horse of the Season for the 2025-26 jumps campaign, giving fresh ‘end-of-season’ recognition to the Willie Mullins-trained chaser after a spring that included victories in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Punchestown Gold Cup.
The Sporting Life’s published Timeform awards placed Gaelic Warrior at the top of this year’s jumps honours on a peak rating of 180, with the assessment built around a campaign that ended with ‘back-to-back’ wins in the two most important staying chases of the spring.
Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth Both Became Millionaires Last Season
Gaelic Warrior was listed as Timeform’s top chaser, while Lossiemouth was named top hurdler and mare after winning the Champion Hurdle three days before Gaelic Warrior landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Both horses are backed by leading jump owner Mrs S Ricci, while last season the pair also both broke through the £1m total prize money won.
Gold Cup and Punchestown Wins Shaped The Gaelic Warrior Case
The awards piece leaned most heavily on Gaelic Warrior’s eight-length success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and his later 26-length defeat of Fact To File in the Punchestown Gold Cup.
Those performances mattered because they turned Gaelic Warrior from a high-class staying chaser into the horse Timeform judged to have set the standard for the whole season.
The Sporting Life awards review noted that Mullins and Paul Townend had already built a formidable recent Gold Cup record, but that Gaelic Warrior’s latest campaign pushed him into the top bracket on ratings and end-of-season recognition alike.
His Cheltenham Gold Cup win gave trainer Willie Mullins a fifth success in the race and is now the joint-winning handler with Tom Dreaper.
While his Punchestown Gold Cup success gave Mullins an eighth win in that April contest.
Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth Both Favourites To Defend Their Cheltenham Titles In 2027
This Timeform award isn’t an official industry title, but a meaningful form verdict.
As this is not an official championship decided by a governing body.
It is Timeform’s end-of-season assessment, so the award should be read as an influential private handicap and form judgment rather than a formal racing title.
Even so, it carries weight because it reflects how one of the sport’s longest-established ratings teams viewed the season once the major spring festivals were complete.
Gaelic Warrior is as short as 9/4 to back-up his Cheltenham Gold Cup win in 2027.
While Lossiemouth is 5/2 to retain her Champion Hurdle crown at the 2027 Cheltenham Festival.
