THE British Horseracing Authority finally called an official end to the 2019/20 National Hunt campaign across the water late last week after which two north of Ireland-born riders were crowned champions.

Last Saturday, we covered the first jockeys’ championship success for south Armagh’s Brian Hughes who, with 141 wins, claimed the title from Richard Johnson who had been champion for the previous four seasons.

Johnson’s stint at the top of the tree came after Moneyglass’s A.P. McCoy had ruled the roost from 1995/96 to 2014/15, while north of Ireland-born Richard Dunwoody had held sway over the three previous seasons.

We mentioned last week that David Maxwell had been declared the champion hunters’ chase rider and it was great to see him also retain his title as Britain’s amateur gentleman jockeys’ National Hunt champion.

The Downpatrick-born, London-based property investor ended the season with 15 wins to his credit, three more than Fergus Gillard who is stable amateur with David Pipe and had planned to turn conditional at the end of the campaign.

Maxwell is one of the very few true amateurs left in the sport and his success over the past two seasons reflects a huge commitment to what is essentially his hobby.

Among his wins during the campaign just ended were a hat trick of hurdle race victories on the Philip Hobbs-trained Jatiluwih and another three wins over timber on the Paul Nicholas-trained Cat Tiger.

As they usually race at opposite ends of the country, Hughes and Maxwell rarely meet one another but the former was very complimentary about his amateur colleague.

“Fair play to David again this year,” said Hughes.

“He has some very nice horses with some very good trainers and is getting the results he deserves. Hats off to him as he is a gentleman in every sense of the word.”