Category: Trainers and Owners

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%.

Hollie Doyle made the perfect start to her riding career, winning on The Mongoose, trained by David Evans, on her first racecourse appearance at Salisbury in May, 2013, and has never looked back. In 2019, Doyle became the winning-most female jockey in a calendar year in Britain, with 116 winners. In 2020, she rode 151 winners, breaking her own record and, on October 22, 2021, rode her 152^nd winner of the year to do so again.

In 2015, Hollie Doyle became apprenticed to Richard Hannon, so it should be no surprise to learn that the Wiltshire trainer was her principal benefactor in 2016 and 2017. Indeed, Hannon provided her with 10 of her 33 winners in 2016 and 20 of her 59 winners in 2017. Doyle rode out her claim in November, 2017, and the following season began a fruitful association with fledgling trainer Archie Watson, which would result in her succeeding Edward Greatrex as stable jockey at Saxon Gate Stables in 2019.

Indeed, since 2018, it has been Watson that has provided Doyle with the vast majority of her winners. In 2018, he provided 22 of her 54 winners and, in her subsequent, record-breaking seasons, 46, 39 and 43 winners, respectively. All told, in the last five seasons, Doyle has ridden 150 winners for Archie Watson, 28 winners for Richard Hannon and 26 winners for William Stone; in that same period, she is also into double-figures for Tony Carroll, Alan King, David Loughnane and Richard Spencer.

Tom Scudamore is, of course, the son of Peter ‘Scu’ Scudamore, who won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship eight times between 1981/82. Scudamore Jnr. made his debut, as a 16-year-old, in an amateur riders’ race at Warwick on July 3, 1998. He finishing second on Nordic Breeze, trained by Martin Pipe, but Angel ‘Jacobs’, jockey of the easy winner, Broughtons Lure, was subsequently revealed to be Angel Monserrate, a former professional in the United States and therefore ineligible. Following a inquiry by the Jockey Club Disciplinary Commitee, Broughtons Lure was disqualified and placed last, and Scudamore was retrospectively handed his first winner.

In any event, Scudamore went on to win the Amateur Gentleman Jockeys Flat Championship in 2001, and turned professional in October that year. He rode his first winner in the paid ranks, Belle D’Anjou, trained by Martin Pipe, in a handicap hurdle at Chepstow on October 6, 2001, having ridden the same horse to victory in the Bollinger Champagne Challenge Series Final Handicap at Ascot eight days earlier.

Martin Pipe retired in April, 2006 and, the following March, Scudamore was appointed stable jockey to his son, David, who took over the training licence at Pond House Stables in Nicholashayne, Devon. At the last count, Scudamore had ridden 741 winners for the yard, 661 for David Pipe and 80 for his father.