Category: Jockeys

In 2007, jockey Seb Sanders rode 213 winners from 1,242 rides and eventually shared the jockeys’ title with Jamie Spencer. However, by the second half of 2015, at the age of 43, he was coming to the end of his career and had been struggling to keep his weight down for some time. The latter was the deciding factor in his controversial decision to become the first jockey in modern British racing to ride a race without wearing boots.

Late in the afternoon of Tuesday, September 1, 2015, Sanders was booked to ride Langley Vale, trained by Roger Teal, in an otherwise unremarkable six-furlong handicap at Goodwood. However, having arrived at the racecourse too late to have a sauna beforehand, he found himself unable to make the weight of 9st 5lb allotted to his intended mount. To the surprise of the Clerk of the Scales, and Teal, Sanders weighed out and rode in the race in his stockinged feet, with his lower legs protected only by his riding breeches, thereby saving half a pound or so.

In any event, Sanders attempted to make all the running but, having been headed with a furlong or so to run, Langley Vale faded in the closing stages to finish fourth, beaten 4¾ lengths, behind favourite Pettochside. Despite breaching no regulations, the following day Sanders attracted criticism from all and sundry, although he was quick to defend his actions, saying that ‘a mountain’s been made out of a molehill’.

According to Guinness World Records, the jockey who has ridden the most winners is Brazilian Jorge Antonio Ricardo who, as of January, 2021, had amassed a career total of 13,044 winners. Born in Rio de Janeiro in September, 1961, Ricardo rode his first winner, as a 15-year-old apprentice in 1976 and enjoyed his best season in his native land in 1992/1993, when he rode 477 winners; by contrast, the British record for the most winners in a season is 289, set by Sir Anthony McCoy in 2001/02.

‘Ricardinho’, as Ricardo is known to his fans, has suffered various fractures, including to his jaw, shoulder blade, collarbone, vertebrae, elbow and femur, in his long, illustrious career, not to mention recovering from cancer of the lymphatic system, or lymphoma, when in his late forties. Nevertheless, despite being incapacitated for protracted periods, he equalled the previous world record, 12,844 winners, set by retired Canadian jockey Russell Baze, in February, 2018. Since then, Ricardo has continued to add to his total, passing the landmark of 13,000 winners in September, 2020. Apart from Baze, no other jockey, worldwide, has achieved a five-figure career total, so his record could well last forever.

Sadly, Patrick James John ‘Pat’ Eddery succumbed to alcoholism before dying, prematurely, at the age of 63, in November, 2015. However, he enjoyed a long, illustrious career, spread over the course of five decades, during which he rode 4,633 winners in Britain and became Champion Jockey 11 times. Indeed, since 1840, only Nat Flatman, George Fordham, Fred Archer and Sir Gordon Richards have won more jockeys’ titles and only Sir Gordon Richards has ridden more winners.

Born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare on March 18, 1952, Eddery began his riding career as apprentice to Seamus McGrath in 1966, before moving to England and joining Prestbury trainer Herbert ‘Frenchie’ Nicholson the following year. Having finished fourth and second in the apprentices’ table in his second and third full seasons, 1969 and 1970, he finally became Champion apprentice in 1971.

Two years later, he succeeded Duncan Keith as stable jockey to Lambourn trainer Peter Walwyn, in which capacity he would become Champion Jockey four years in a row between 1974 and 1977. During his time with Walwyn, Eddery rode his first three British Classic winners, Polygamy in the Oaks in 1974, Grundy in the Derby in 1975 and Scintillate in the Oaks, again, in 1979.

The following year Eddery left Walwyn to succeed Lester Piggott as stable jockey to Vincent O’Brien at Ballydoyle, Co. Tipperary and, later in his career, rode as retained jockey for Khalid Abdullah and as a freelance jockey. All told he won 14 British Classics and rode at least a hundred winners in Britain every year between 1973 and 2001, except 1982, when he was Champion Jockey in Ireland.

Frederick James ‘Fred’ Archer was a legendary Victorian jockey whose life came to a tragic end, at his own hand, on November 8, 1886, at the age of 29. On the day after the second anniversary of the death of his wife, Nellie Rose, during childbirth, deliriously ill with typhoid fever and ‘in a state of unsound mind’, Archer shot himself with a revolver in his bedroom at Falmouth House, Newmarket.

Neverthless, ‘The Tin Man’, as Archer was known, won the jockeys’ title 13 years running between 1874 and 1886 and still jointly holds the record, alongside Elnathan ‘Nat’ Flatman, for the most consecutive titles. All told, he rode 2,748 winners, including 246 winners in a single season in 1885, thereby setting records that would stand until the inimitable Sir Gordon Richards rose to prominence decades later.

Unusually tall for a jockey at 5’10” – interestingly, the same height as Sir Anthony McCoy – Archer faced a constant battle with his weight in his later years and was forced into a Draconian regime of starvation diet, Turkish baths and purgatives, which ultimately contributed to his demise. Nevertheless, having eventually succeeded the equally ill-fated Tom French as stable jockey to Matthew Dawson in 1875, he went on to win the St. Leger six times, the Derby five times, the 2,000 Guineas and the Oaks four times apiece and the 1,000 Guineas twice, for a total of 21 British Classic winners.