Category: Jockeys

Which current jockey has ridden the most winners at the Cheltenham Festival?

Following the retirement of Richard Johnson on April 3, 2021, the current jockey who has ridden the most winners at the Cheltenham Festival is David ‘Davy’ Russell. Russell has, like Johnson, ridden 22 winners, a total exceeded only by countrymen Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty, A.P. McCoy and Pat Taaffe.

Russell, 42, spent nearly a year on the sidelines as the result of serious vertebrae injury sustained in a fall from Doctor Duffy in the Munster National at Limerick in October, 2020, and missed the 2021 Cheltenham Festival on medical advice. At the time of writing, he has yet to resume race riding, but has been riding out for Gordon Elliott and is reportedly ready to return when called upon to do so.

Russell rode his first Cheltenham winner, Native Jack, in what is now the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase in 2006. Thereafter, with the exception of 2019, he rode at least one winner at every Cheltenham Festival up to, and including, 2020. At the 2014 Cheltenham Festival, Russell rode three winners for the first time, including Lord Windermere in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. He bettered that total in 2014 and his four winners – Presenting Percy in the RSA Novices’ Chase, Balko Des Flos in the Ryanair Chase, Delta Work in the Pertemps Final and The Storyteller in the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate – were sufficient to win him the leading jockey award for the one and only time.

When did Rachael Blackmore ride her first winner at the Cheltenham Festival?

It would be fair to say Tipperary-born Rachael Blackmore enjoyed an ‘annus mirabilis’ in 2021. At the Cheltenham Festival in March, she made history by becoming the first female jockey to win the Champion Hurdle, on Honeysuckle, and capped a stellar week by becoming the first to win the leading jockey award. The following month, she achieved another notable first when partnering Minella Times to a 6½-length victory in the Grand National at Aintree. A fracture ankle and hip injury, sustained at in a fall at Killarney in July, took the shine off an otherwise remarkable year, but served as a timely reminder of the dangers National Hunt jockeys face every day.

Blackmore did not turn professional until 2015, but became Irish champion conditional jockey in 2016/17. She subsequently joined forces with Waterford trainer Henry de Bromhead and, thus, began a meteoric rise that would take her right to the top of her profession. She rode her first Cheltenham Festival winner, A Plus Tard, in the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap in 2019 and her second, Minella Indo, in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle three days later. Ironically, two years later, it was Minella Indo who prevented Blackmore from becoming the first female jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, staying on gamely to beat A Plus Tard by 1¼ lengths.

What are apprentice and conditional jockeys?

What are apprentice and conditional jockeys? Apprentice jockeys, in Flat racing, and conditional jockeys, in National Hunt racing, are jockeys aged between 16 and 25 years of age, who have ridden a limited number of winners. To compensate for their lack of experience, in some, but not all, races, they can claim a weight allowance when riding against fully licensed professionals.

The weight allowance is simply deducted from the weight allotted to the horse due to be ridden by the jockey in question; a horse allotted 9st 7lb, due to be ridden by an apprentice claiming 3lb, would actually carry 9st 4lb, and so on. The only proviso is that if the weight allowance takes the weight allotted below the minimum riding weight of the jockey, he or she is unable to claim the full allowance.

Apprentices with fewer than 95 winners can claim 3lb, thise with fewer than 40 winners can claim 5lb and those with fewer than 20 winners can claim 7lb. Similarly, conditional jockeys with fewer than 75 winners can claim 3lb, those with fewer than 40 winners can claim 5lb and those with fewer than 20 winners can claim 7lb. Additionally, conditional jockeys wih fewer than five winners can claim an extra 3lb, making 10lb in total, when riding for their own stable.

How many winners has Henry de Bromhead saddled at the Cheltenham Festival?

Compared with the likes of Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, Henry de Bromhead is a relative newcomer to success at the Cheltenham Festival. However, in recent years, he has emerged as a force majeure on both sides of the Irish Sea and, in 2021, became the first trainer in history to saddle the winners of the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the same Cheltenham Festival.

Henry de Bromhead took over the training licence at the family stables in Knockeen, Co. Waterford from his father, Harry, on January 1, 2000. However, it was not until 10 years later that he saddled Sizing Europe to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy, but he garnered further acclaim by saddling the same horse to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2011, the year in which he also won the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase with Sizing Australia.

In 2015, the late Alan Potts, owner of Sizing Europe and Sizing Australia, decided to remove all his horses from the Knockeen stable, but de Bromhead has continued to thrive. At the last count, he had 15 Cheltenham Festival winners to his name, having won the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times, with Sizing Europe in 2011, Special Tiara in 2017 and Put The Kettle On in 2021 and the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup once apiece, with Honeysuckle and Minella Indo, both in 2021.

 

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