Every season a task that I love to undertake is a piece of Analysis based upon the sales results over the last year, which points towards how much investment is going into each yard for the upcoming Jumps Season. In the case of my Analysis for the upcoming 2026/27 campaign, I have accounted for all public auctions from the 1st October 2025 through to the 30th September 2026 – tracking which yard each Horse has ended up going to. There are of course a few that I have been unable to locate, but all of the big purchases at the Goffs and Tattersalls sales have been accounted for.

Before I get into the numbers, it is important to understand that this analysis is only able to look at spend which has been made at public auction, as for obvious reasons it would be impossible to track private sales, and even more difficult to find out how much those sales cost. The other thing to note is that I also ignore Store Horses at auctions such as the Arkle Sale, as these Horses are mostly unnamed (making them hard to track), and might not even be seen on a racecourse until the following campaign.

With those parameters all laid out, let’s get into the analysis…

 

 

Position Trainer Spend Number of Horses Average Spend/Horse
1 Dan Skelton £6,685,600 56 £119,386
2 Gordon Elliott £5,552,560 36 £154,238
3 Willie Mullins £3,450,900 16 £215,681
4 Olly Murphy £2,432,580 23 £105,764
5 Ben Pauling £2,407,400 23 £104,670
6 Paul Nicholls £2,375,350 15 £158,357
7 Nicky Henderson £2,315,600 11 £210,509
8 Jamie Snowden £1,646,300 12 £137,192
9 Lucinda Russell & Michael Scudamore £1,612,380 20 £80,619
10 Mickey Bowen £1,277,850 14 £91,275
11 Jonjo & AJ O'Neill £1,191,720 8 £148,965
12 Venetia Williams £1,044,620 11 £94,965
13 Warren Greatrex £1,028,270 13 £79,098
14 Donald McCain £970,980 22 £44,135
15 Henry De Bromhead £912,000 4 £228,000
16 Harry Derham £881,000 8 £110,125
17 Fergal O'Brien £860,000 8 £107,500
18 Gavin Cromwell £809,700 10 £80,970
19 David Pipe £683,400 9 £75,933
20 Sam Thomas £632,200 3 £210,733

 

The Rise of Dan Skelton

Clearly the stand-out figure in the Top 20 is that of British Champion Trainer Dan Skelton, who after finally getting over the line at Sandown in April has completely doubled down, spending huge sums and recruiting a staggering number of Horses. It is reminiscent of a Premier League team winning the title, then spending more than ever to try and cement that position. We all know that Dan has his sights set on much bigger targets than simply retaining his crown however; as Martin Pipe’s record of 243 winners in a single season is within reach.

Dan is already up to 87 winners following a very productive Summer, and the BHA currently has him down as having an astounding 277 Horses in training – with surely more yet to even come back into the yard following acquisitions, summer breaks and injuries. The numbers are truly mind boggling when you compare them with his rivals too; Paul Nicholls has 103 in training at the time of writing, and Nicky Henderson has 104. Just based on pure numbers there is no competition outside off Willie Mullins coming across and winning all of the Graded races as well as the Grand National to boot.

The comparison between my Analysis in 2025 to 2026 is stark as well, with Dan Skelton spending £1.14m at public auction according to my records this time last year. That means he has spent over £5.5m more than the previous period, and his owners have very much been in full support of his ambitions.

Mrs Lindy O’Hare spent over £1m in one day when landing both Mets Ta Ceinture and Merci Mam at the Arqana Deauville Autumn sale last November, whilst in the Spring Susan Johnson and Rachel Wilson went to £435k for Mifa D’Airy, JP McManus went to £430k for Walkonseas, and Robert Kirkland went to €500k for Isaac Of York. What is even more significant than the spends of his existing owners however is that he has attracted new powerhouses too; with Tony Bloom taking £160k purchase Different Story, and Denise Coates spending over £600k on Push The Button.

In my opinion it is only a matter of time until Dan Skelton is a record breaker, and he will probably be able to break his own record again in future years if this level of recruitment continues.

 

Willie Mullins Keeps It Private

Whilst Dan Skelton is still building relationships and networks within the recruitment side of Racing, the majority of his purchases come at public auction where he is able to exercise his financial muscle on an open market. When looking at the list however you may wonder why Willie Mullins is only in third, but that really does stem down to his faultless networks that have been in place for many years, allowing him to purchase horses before they are even offered to the wider trainer pool.

There are stories in France of Pierre Boullard striking deals for Horses before they have even reached the winners enclosure at Auteuil, and those sorts of private deals will almost always be for large sums of money. As stated in my parameters however, it is impossible to account for them, but it does go some way to explaining the discrepancy.

It is notable however that Willie has done more public business over the past year; spending £2m more on my 2026 list compared to my 2025 list. Quinteplus was a €470k purchase at the Arqana Arc Sale, whilst Monzon Sport was a rare expensive point-to-point purchase at the Cheltenham Festival Sale – but even that can be explained away by the fact that he has a gorgeous French pedigree which includes Grade 1 winner Leader Sport.

The clogs are very much still turning down at Closutton then, and if you were able to account for all of his twenty-plus French Recruits, then perhaps he would even claim top spot on the spending charts.

The Chasing Pack

Whilst Gordon Elliott almost stands in a bit of a league of his own in the sense that his £5.5m spend for 2026 is in largely line with the £4m in 2025 and £6m in 2024, it is very interesting to see what is happening with the British Trainers who are trying to keep up with the behemoth Dan Skelton operation.

Olly Murphy narrowly comes out on top of Ben Pauling, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson – but there is only about £100k separating the quintet, who have all spent around the £2.4m mark. What is even more interesting is that all four of these trainers have spent between £1m-£1.5m more than om the previous Analysis too, so there has been at least a concerted effort to try and ensure the gap does not widen too far. You could of course also mention that the markets are becoming quite inflated, and it does cost some serious cash now to be buying at the top of both the P2P and French markets.

I was lucky enough to visit the stables of Ben Pauling last season so it is no surprise to see him continue to be well supported, as they truly are state-of-the-art facilities. With powerful backing from Harry Redknapp, Lynne MacLennan and Lady Dulverton there are always going to be orders to fill, and Catchem Black was a particularly expensive purchase at £240,000 for the Eventist Group Ltd.

Nicky Henderson is another trainer who tends to have the connections in order to pull off private business, and a prime example of that is Down Jones Road who was scooped up before he went off to the sales, so the reality is probably thar he should be higher up the list – but he certainly has utilised public auctions more in this period than in previous years. As you will see from the average cost he pays for a Horse, he is certainly sourcing quality over quantity these days; with the likes of Royal Response at £290k for Dash Grange Stud, and Night League at €320k for JP McManus certainly going some way to highlighting that.

It is also good to see Paul Nicholls pick up again in the market, as during 2025 he reached a low of just £1.2m spent. Minella Yoga was his big purchase at £360,000 in November, but others including Stick To The Board (£215k) and Order On Time (£200k) have won a Bumper for the stable in the Spring, and look top prospects for Novice Hurdling this campaign. Whilst ultimately Paul does not have the numbers that he used to have, he does seem to slowly but surely be building up a nice team of young horses.

 

Surprise Entries

Perhaps the name that stands out most on this list as spending a particularly large sum is Mickey Bowen, who has climbed to 10th place on the Analysis, with an increase of £1.1m year-on-year. This investment does really come down to one man however, as Martin Gowing is an owner who has truly burst onto the scene over the past year or so. Eskylady at £260k and Off The Jury at £250k are the headlines makers for Mickey Bowen, but the likes of Nimba have also been purchased privately to ensure he is well stocked. The news has also broken that Mickey (via a private investor) has purchased David Dennis’ old yard in Worcestershire for £2.2m, so you would imagine that his trajectory will only go in one direction over the next few years.

It is also notable that Martin Gowing has now branched out his operation too, sending six Horses to Rebecca Curtis and a handful to Willie Mullins for good measure. Rebecca has been well stocked this year with Common Sense costing £160k and Whereweallbelong costing £200k both for Mr Gowing, but she does narrowly miss out on a spot in the Top 20 due to doing plenty of private business behind the scenes as well. Meanwhile Legend Du Lemo, Most Glamorous and Mango Tree have all switched from France to Closutton privately for these new silks on the block.

Another perhaps surprising name to surpass the £1m barrier is Warren Greatrex in 13th, and he has significantly increased year-on-year by £832k. Novelista was a 165,000 Guineas purchase off the Flat for his landlords Jim and Claire Bryce, whilst Governors Rock fetched £100k at the Cheltenham November Sale, and All In You was a relatively shrewd buy at £90k from the David Maxwell Dispersal. Overall, he has a nice steady stream of talent coming into the yard, and that was certainly reflected in results last season, where a total of 40 winners being posted was his highest since 2017/18.

Two Operations to Note

I have been particularly impressed by the way in which Jamie Snowden has been conducting his business over the past few seasons, as he has seemingly made an effort to slowly build up his string, rather than simply inject a load of cash all in one go. In 2024 he spent £710k, in 2025 he spent £844k, and then this year he has climbed to £1.6m, attracting some lovely Horses in the process.

Red Acres Max was a £240k purchase at the Coral Gold Cup Sale and has since won a Bumper for the team whilst there is plenty of hype around Ballycrystal Boy who was picked up for £160k at the Cheltenham Festival. In total he has picked up eight Horses costing over £100k over the past year, and that should just help to keep the stream of talent coming into the yard to keep ticking along.

For different reasons entirely I think it is going to be worth keeping an eye on the Venetia Williams yard this season, as she had a terrible time of things for her high standards in the last campaign – finishing on her lowest total for winners since 1995/96. To try and remedy that situation however she has gone big at the sales, spending £1m across eleven Horses for an increase of £769k on the previous period. As is her modus operandi most of these recruits have come across from France, including the very exciting No Risk Allen, who cost €475k at an Aktem Auction in April. Owner Peter Davies will hope that he can become the next Djelo, but Venetia has also purchased plenty of Horses around the €100k mark to try and rebuild her string across the spectrum.

The sliders

The only two trainers who have spent less in 2026 than 2025 inside the Top 20 are Harry Derham and Fergal O’Brien, but in the case of Fergal it is just a £71k differential, so we can let that one slide. Harry however has dropped from £1.4m 12 months ago to £881k now, but a large part of that is due to his high-profile acquisitions of Cristal D’Estruval and Clondaw Park during the 2025 Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale. Whilst this year has seemingly been more about consolidating and purchasing younger Store Horses in order to attack the Junior National Hunt programme, there were still a few big purchases including Just Ennemi for £320k at the infamous David Maxwell dispersal, and Final Verdict for £240k at the Goffs Aintree Sale for Mrs Ceri Fell.

Hopefully you have found this Sales Analysis interesting, and it helps you to contextualise which yards are receiving the types of investment that can make a real difference to their performance in the Trainers Championship and beyond. Of course, the headline will be that Dan Skelton has taken his spending to new heights, but knowing the likes of Jamie Snowden, Ben Pauling and Mickey Bowen are receiving significant investment surely can only positively impact their ability to compete, and ultimately help them to climb the standings.