Category: Jockeys

For the benefit of anyone without access to public access broadcasting, Rachael Blackmore is an Irish National Hunt jockey who has climbed to the pinnacle of her profession and achieved a series of notable ‘firsts’ along the way. Tipperary-born Blackmore, 32, rode her first winner as a professional, Most Honourable, trained by John Joseph ‘Shark’ Hanlon, at Clonmel in September, 2015. The following season, 2016/17, she was Irish champion conditional jockey with 32 winners.

However, it was when she joined Waterford trainer Henry de Bromhead as stable jockey that her career really took off. Blackmore rode her first Cheltenham winners, A Plus Tard in the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase and Minella Indo in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, in 2019 and the rest, as they say, is history.

At the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, Blackmore won the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle on Honeysuckle, but would win the Champion Hurdle on the same horse in 2021 – making her the first female jockey to do so – and again in 2022. At the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, she rode a total a six winners, thereby becoming the first female jockey to win the Ruby Walsh Trophy, which is presented to the leading jockey during the week.

Three weeks later, Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National, on Minella Times and, at the 2022 Cheltenham Festival, also became the first female jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, on A Plus Tard. Blackmore has yet to win the Irish Jump Jockeys’ Championship, but has finished runner-up twice, in 2018/2019 and 2020/2021, with 90 winners and 92 winners, respectively, so another ‘first’ is probably only a matter of time.

In the United Kingdom, the most successful jockey of all time was Sir Gordon Richards, who retired in 1954 with 4,870 winners to his name. Indeed, Richards set a world record, but it lasted only until 1956, when broken by fellow Englishman John ‘Johnny’ Longden. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, Longden emigrated to Canada with his family 1912 and subsequently moved to California to pursue a career as a jockey. Based at Santa Anita Park, Longden retired from race riding in 1966 with 6,032 victories, thereby setting a new world record for career wins.

Longden’s record stood until 1970, when it was broken by Texan-born Willie ‘Bill’ Shoemaker. Indeed, even though Shoemaker rode his last winner in 1990, taking his career total to 8,833,

he would continue to hold the world record for most wins until 1999. At that point, Shoemaker ceded the all-time record to another West Coast jockey, Panamanian-born Laffit Pincay Jr., who had been riding in the United States since 1966.

Like Shoemaker, Pincay Jr. continued to hold the record for most career winners until his retirement, at the age of 56, in 2003, by which time his tally stood at 9,530. In fact, Pincay Jr. would not be surpassed until Canadian-born Russell Baze chalked up win number 9,531, courtesy of Butterfly Belle at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, California in December, 2006. Thereafter, Baze frequently traded the all-time record with Brazilian-born Jorge Ricardo, but continued riding until June, 2016, when he brought his stellar, 42-year career to end. At the time of his retirement, at the age of 57, he had ridden 12,844 winners and wrested back the record from his South American rival.

Remarkably, Ricardo, who turned 60 in September, 2021, is still active as a jockey. He equalled Baze’s record at Hipodromo da Gavea, in his native Rio de Janeiro, in February, 2018, before breaking it at Hipodromo de San Isidro in Buenos Aires, Argentina the following day. At the last count, ‘Ricardinho’, as he is known to his fans, had ridden‎ 13,122 winners and, after 45 years in the saddle set a record that will surely never be beaten by anyone other than himself. He once said, ‘I keep riding because it is my life. Honestly, I can’t live without it.’

Of the five most successful jockeys in the history of Flat racing in the United Kingdom, two are deceased and two are long retired, but all five had, or have, riding careers spanning at least four decades. As such, they are well-known and much-respected figures.

The most successful of all was Sir Gordon Richards, who was the first jockey to be knighted and rode 4,870 winners between 1921 and 1954, thereby setting a world record. Richards was champion jockey in 26 of his 34 seasons and, in 1943, rode 269 winners, thereby setting a British single-season record that would stand until broken by Sir Anthony McCoy in 2002.

Second on the all-time list comes the late Pat Eddery, who died of a heart attack in November, 2015, after a long, well-publicised battle with alcoholism. Between 1969 and 2003, Eddery rode 4,633 winners and was champion jockey 11 times in Britain and once, during a spell as stable jockey to Vincent O’Brien at Ballydoyle, Co. Tipperary, in Ireland.

Next up is Lester Piggott who, to readers of a certain age, requires little or no introduction. Nicknamed ‘The Long Fella’, due to his height and idiosyncratic riding style, Piggott was a force majeure in British Flat racing for most of his career. Between 1948 and 1994, he rode 4,493 winners, including an unprecedented 30 British Classic winners. Like Pat Eddery, he was champion jockey 11 times.

Younger than Piggott and older than Eddery, but a direct contemporary of both as far as his riding career was concerned, Willie Carson rode 3,828 winners between 1962 and 1996. He was champion jockey five times between 1972 and 1983 and rode 17 British Classic winners.

Last, but by no means least, comes Italian-born Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori, who rode his first winner on British soil in June, 1987, at the age of 16, and is still going strong nearly three-and-a-half decades later. Dettori has been champion jockey just three times, in 1994, 1995 and 2004, and has 17 British Classic wins to his name. As of March, 2021, he had ridden 3,286 winners and, having add just 41 to that total in the rest of the year, clearly has some work to do if he is to make further progress up the all-time list.