Category: Jockeys

The first National Hunt jockey to ride 1,000 winners was the late Stanley ‘Stan’ Mellor, who died aged 83 in August, 2020. Known for his guile as much as his strength and style, Mellor won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship three years running in 1959/60, 1960/61 and 1961/62. Indeed, he may have won more jockeys’ titles, but for serious facial injuries sustained in a fall from Eastern Harvest in the augural running of the Schweppes Gold Trophy at Aintree in 1963.

In any event, Mellor rode Chorus, trained by Harry Thomson Jones, to victory at Nottingham in 1971 to beat the previous record for winners on British soil, 923, set by Fred Winter. He reached the landmark of 1,000 winners on Ouzo, also trained by Jones, at Nottingham later that year and, at the time of his retirement, at the end of the 1971/72 season, had racked up a career total of 1,035 winners in Britain.

In a typical example of brains over brawn, Mellor guided 25/1 chance Stalbridge Colonist to a half-length victory over the legendary Arkle – who was, in fairness, conceding 35lb – in the Hennessy Gold Cup in 1966. Biding his time, Mellor drove Stalbridge Colonist, who was blessed with a potent turn of foot, into the final fence and took a narrow lead on the run-in, giving Arkle little time to respond.

On April 3, 2021, to the shock of everyone, Richard Johnson announced his retirement with immediate effect. Johnson rode his first winner under National Hunt rules, Rusty Bridge, at Hereford in April,1994 and, under the mentorship of David ‘The Duke’ Nicholson, won the Conditional Jockeys’ Championship in 1995/96.

By the time of his retirement, Johnson accumulated 3,819 winners, a figure bettered only by his great friend and rival Tony McCoy. Indeed, he was forced to play ‘second fiddle’ to McCoy for much of his career, finishing runner-up in the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship on no fewer than occasions.

However, McCoy retired in April, 2015, allowing Johnson to finally emerge from his shadow. He did so in style, winning the jockeys’ title four years running between 2015/16 and 2018/19, with 235, 180, 176 and 200 winners, respectively. At the Cheltenham Festival, Johnson rode a career total of 22 winners and won each of the main ‘championship races’ – Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup – at least once.

In the Grand National, Johnson still holds the unenviable record of the most rides, 21, without success. The best he ever managed in the Aintree marathon was two second-placed finishes, on What’s Up Boys in 2002 and Balthazar King in 2014.

In the sphere of National Hunt racing, it would be fair to say that Sir Anthony Peter McCoy, still known to his friends as ‘A.P.’, carried all before him. At the time of his retirement in April, 2015, he had ridden 4,348 winners under National Hunt rules and set a series of extraordinary records, some of which may never be broken. McCoy won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship in each of the 20 seasons he rode in Britain. In 2001/02, he racked up 289 winners, smashing the previous record for the number of winners in a single season, set by Sir Gordon Richards in 1947.

However, the Cheltenham Festival was perhaps the one instance when McCoy did not entirely rule the roost. Of the four main ‘championship’ races, he won the Champion Hurdle three times, the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice and the Queen Mother Champion Chase once. The Stayers’ Hurdle was a notable omission from his CV, but he did win the leading jockey award twice, in 1997 and 1998, while stable jockey to Martin Pipe. However, his career total of 31 Cheltenham Festival winners is only third in the all-time list, behind Rupert ‘Ruby’ Walsh, with 59 winners, and Barry Geraghty, with 43 winners. Of the jockeys still riding, only Davy Russell, with 25 winners, is really within hailing distance, so his position looks safe for a while yet.

It’s often stated that the history of Royal Ascot dates back over 300 years but, in all that time, just three female jockeys have ridden a winner at the Royal meeting. Back in the days when, as she put it, ‘it was particularly snobby…and a woman riding at Royal Ascot was unheard of’, Gay Kelleway was the first to do so. In 1987, she took advantage of testing conditions by adopting catch-me-if-you-can tactics on confirmed mudlark Sprowston Boy, trained by her late father, Paul, to win the Queen Alexandra Stakes.

Remarkably, though, it was not until 2019 that Hayley Turner partnered the aptly-named Thanks Be to a narrow victory in the Sandringham Stakes to join Gay Kelleway on the Royal Ascot roll of honour. Lo and behold, the following year she won the same race again on Onassis, who was trained, like Thanks Be, by Charlie Fellowes. The following day, in the style of ‘London buses’, rising star Hollie Doyle partnered Scarlet Dragon, trained by Alan King, to victory in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, thereby becoming the third female jockey in history to ride a Royal Ascot winner.