Category: Jockeys

Mark Johnston, the most prolific trainer in the history of British horse racing, once said that Keith Dalgleish was ‘way, way ahead’ of any apprentice he’d had in the past. He added that he hoped Dalgleish would ‘ride out his claim with me and then stay on to make his future here.’ Dalgleish did just that but, after five bright, but brief, seasons, he was forced to concede defeat in the battle with his weight and retired in 2004, at the age of just 21. Dalgleish subsequently became assistant trainer to Noel Wilson at Belstane Racing Stables in Carluke, South Lanarkshire and took over the yard, at the behest of owner Gordon McDowall, when Wilson left in 2011.

As far as a stable jockey is concerned, at the start of 2021, Dalgleish committed himself, 100%, to Callum Rodriguez and vice versa. Rodriguez, who turned 24 in May, 2021, served his apprenticeship with Richard Ford and Michael Dodds, riding out his claim on Mustaqbal, trained by Dods, at Carlisle in September, 2018. Interestingly, he had previously been described as ‘one of the apprentice finds of the season’ after winning the Ebor Handicap at York on Nakeeta, trained by Iain Jardine, as a 5lb claimer, in August, 2017.

Dalgleish and Rodriguez are enjoying a productive campaign in 2021. Dalgleish has already equalled his highest ever seasonal tally on the Flat, 86 winners, and Rodriguez has ridden 51 winners for the yard, including Volatile Analyst in the £100,000 Coral Sprint Trophy at York in October.

Nowadays based at Ravenswell Farm in Withington, Gloucestershire, Fergal O’Brien has enjoyed a stellar start to the 2021/22 National Hunt season. Effective from October, 2021, O’Brien joined forces with fellow Gloucestershire trainer Graham McPherson to create O’Brien McPherson Racing, but retained the role of licensed trainer for the new enterprise. He currently leads the Jump Trainers’ Championship with 57 winners and £441,223 in prize money, over £100,000 ahead of his nearest rival, reigning champion trainer Paul Nicholls.

At the time of writing, Paddy Brennan has ridden 150 of the 265 runners that O’Brien has saddled under National Hunt rules so far in 2021, for a return of 40 winners, at a strike rate of 27%. He currently lies third in the Jump Jockeys’ Championship, 29 winners adrift of 2019/20 champion jockey Brian Hughes. Nevertheless, his current strike rate for the yard compares favourably with his overall strike rate over the last five seasons, which stands at 206-1,033 (20%). During that period, he achieved his previous highest strike rate, 21%, in both 2019/20 and 2020/21, but his highest total, 64 winners, in 2020/21.

Interviewed during the latter part of the 2020/21 season, during which O’Brien eventually saddled a career-best 104 winners, Brennan told the ‘Racing Post’, ‘People ask how long this incredible run is going to last and I say this is just the start.’ It appears his optimism was not misplaced.

Paul Hanagan, who won the Flat Jockeys’ Championship two years running, in 2010 and 2011, has enjoyed two spells with Richard Fahey. Hanagan first became apprenticed to Fahey, who is nowadays based at Musley Bank in Malton, North Yorkshire, in 1999. Three years later, in 2002, he won the Apprentice Jockeys’ Championship with 81 winners, which was the second-highest seasonal total by an apprentice since World War II.

In 2010, Hanagan rode 191 during the championship period, edging out Richard Hughes to win the jockeys’ title on the final day of the season. He defended his title in 2011, with 165 winners, just four ahead of his nearest rival, Silvestre de Sousa. Buoyed by his success, Hanagan replaced Richard Hills as retained rider to the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum in 2012. He was eventually replaced by Jim Crowley at the end of the 2016 season but, reflecting on his time in the famous blue and white colours of Sheikh Hamdan, he said, ‘There’s no regrets, I rode my first Classic winner [Taghrooda], a King George winner [Taghrooda again], rode the champion sprinter in Muhaarar, it was a successful time and I wouldn’t change it for the world.’

Hanagan rejoined Fahey at Musley Bank ahead of the 2017 season, where he has been stable jockey where he was a stable jockey up to his retirement in 2023. All told, in a career spanning four decades, Hanagan has ridden a total of 926 winners from 6,664 rides for Richard Fahey, at a strike rate of 14%.

A graduate from pony racing, Jonjo O’Neill Jr. was still a pupil at Cheltenham College when he rode his first winner under rules, Temple Lord, trained by his father, Jonjo Snr., in an amateur riders’ handicap at Worcester on July 23, 2015, at the age of 17. Temple Lord was his only winner in the 2015/16 campaign; he rode just four winners in 2016/17 and nine more in 2017/18 before being put forward for his conditional licence.

In 2018/19, O’Neill rode 30 winners, including Early Doors, trained by Joseph O’Brien, in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March, 2019. The following December, he took his career total to 75 winners, thereby riding out his 3lb claim, with victory on Adicci, again trained by his father, in a novices’ hurdle at Plumpton.

In the 2019/20 National Hunt season, as a whole, O’Neill rode at total of 61 winners, which was enough to claim the conditional jockeys’ title, 20 winners ahead of his nearest rival, Ben Jones. In his first season as a fully-fledged professional, 2020/21, he improved his seasonal tally again, albeit just by one, and rode several high-profile winners for his father. His victories included his two biggest winners so far, Soaring Glory, in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury in March, 2021, and Time To Get Up, in the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter the following month. All told, in his career to date, Jonjo O’Neill Jr. has ridden 132 winners from 768 rides for his father, at a strike rate of 17%.