Category Archives: Jockeys

The late Arthur Edward ‘Scobie’ Breasley, who died in 2006 at the age of 92 after suffering a stroke, was arguably the best jockey Australia has ever produced. Born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Breasley earned his nickname at an early age, when described by a family friend as ‘a right little Scobie’, in reference to pre-eminent Australian trainer James Scobie.

Breasley was Champion Jockey of Victoria three years running, in 1944, 1945 and 1946, before, in 1950, accepting a contract to ride for Noel Cannon, private trainer to James Voase ‘Jimmy’ Rank, chairman of what became Rank Hovis McDougall, at Druid Lodge Stables, near Salisbury. The following season Breasley won his first British Classic, the 2,000 Guineas, on King Mi, trained by Michael Beary but, dissatisfied with his treatment by Pat Rank, the wife of his employer – and an inveterate, but hardly equanimous, gambler – he returned to Australia in 1952.

He stayed long enough to win a record fifth Caulfield Cup on Peshawar, trained by Pat Quinlan, but was soon lured back to England by John Arthur ‘Lucky’ Dewar, the new senior patron at Druid Lodge Stables. In 1954, Breasley won the 1,000 Guineas on Festoon, owned by Dewar and trained by Cannon. However, at the end of the 1955 season, having turned down an offer to succeed Sir Gordon Richards as stable jockey to Sir Noel Murless, Breasley joined Richards himself, now a trainer, at Ogbourne Maizey Stables, near Marlborough Wiltshire.

In 1957, Breasley won the jockeys’ title for the first time with 173 winners, in so doing becoming the first Australian since Frank Wootton, in 1912, to be crowned Champion Jockey. He did, nevertheless, suffer the irritation of finishing behind Crepello, trained by Murless and ridden by his now stable jockey, Lester Piggott, in the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby.

Breasley finished runner-up to Doug Smith in the jockeys’ championship in 1958 and 1959, and to Piggott in 1960, before becoming Champion Jockey again in 1961, 1962 and 1963, with 171, 179 and 176 winners, respectively. His final jockeys’ title, which he won at the age of 49, was achieved at the expense of Piggott, who he beat by a score of 176-175 on the final day of the season. In 1958, Breasley won the Eclipse Stakes, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes – and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe – on Ballymoss and, in 1964 and 1966, the Derby, on Santa Claus and Charlottown, but was never Champion Jockey again.

At the time of writing, Ryan Lee Moore is one of just four jockeys still riding – the others being Frankie Dettori, Joe Fanning and Jamie Spencer – to feature in the top twenty most successful British-based jockeys, numerically, of all time. In fact, since 2000, Moore has ridden 2,117 domestic winners, placing him in nineteenth place in the all-time list.

Champion Apprentice in 2003, with 52 winners, Moore was Champion Jockey for the first time in 2006, with 182 winners. At that stage of his career, he was still with Wiltshire trainer Richard Hannon Snr., with whom he’d be enrolled by his father, National Hunt trainer Gary Moore, as an 18-year-old, in 2001. The highlight of his first title-winning season, though, was winning the Juddmonte International Stakes at York on Notnowcato, trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

A broken wrist forced Moore to sit out nearly three months of 2007, effectively surrendering the jockeys’ championship, but he gained just dessert when, at the end of the season, he was offered the job as stable jockey to Stoute. In 2008, Moore rode a total of 192 domestic winners, but his three biggest winners – Promising Lead in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, Linngari in the Grosser Preis Bayerisches Zuctrennen at Munich and Conduit in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita Park – all came abroad.

Nevertheless, he became Champion Jockey for the second time that year and would defend his title in 2009, once again, thanks in large part to horses trained by Stoute. His globe-trotting exploits continued, though, and as early as April that year he’d already won the QE II Cup at Sha Tin, Hong Kong, on Presvis, trained by Luca Cumani. Domestically, wins at the highest level on Ask in the Coronation Cup, Conduit in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Beethoven, trained by Aidan O’Brien – to whom Moore would later become stable jockey – contributed to his seasonal total of 178 winners and clinched his third jockeys’ title.

William Fisher Hunter “Willie” Carson was the fourth most successful jockey, numerically, in the history of British horse racing. Between 1962 and 1996, he rode 3,828 domestic winners, placing him behind only Sir Gordon Richards, Pat Eddery and Lester Piggott in the all-time list.

Carson was apprenticed to Gerard Armstrong at Middleham, North Yorkshire in 1957, but didn’t ride his first winner, Pinkers Pond, at Catterick until 1962. Nevertheless, a decade later, in 1972, the diminutive Scot – who stands just five feet tall and could ride at 7st 10lb throughout his career – had ridden his first British Classic winner, High Top, in the 2,000 Guineas and become Champion Jockey for the first time, with 132 winners.

Carson defended his title in 1973, increasing his seasonal aggregate to 164 winners, but wasn’t Champion Jockey again until 1978. By that time, having controversially replaced Joe Mercer as first jockey to Dick Hern, a.k.a. ‘The Major’, at the end of the 1976 season, Carson had formed a professionally close relationship with the West Isley trainer. Indeed, thanks, in part, to victories for Cistus in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood, he recorded his highest seasonal aggregate, of 182 winners, in any of his title-winning seasons; he did, in fact, surpass that total in 1990, but his 187 winners that year were only good enough for second place behind Pat Eddery.

The Hern-Carson partnership enjoyed another particularly lucrative campaign in 1980, a year in which Carson rode 166 winners to become Champion Jockey for the fourth time. Known Fact won the 2,000 Guineas in the stewards’ room after first-past-the-post Nureyev was disqualified and placed last and, later in the season, beat Kris fair and square in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Bireme won the Oaks and Ela-Mana-Mou, whom Hern had acquired from Guy Harwood at the end of his three-year-old campaign, won the Coral-Eclipse Stakes, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, before finishing a close third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on his final start.

It was a similar story in 1983, when Carson won the Gold Cup at Ascot and the Goodwood Cup on Little Wolf, along with the Oaks, the Yorkshire Oaks and the St. Leger on Sun Princess, both trained by Dick Hern. Arundel trainer John Dunlop also played his part, saddling British Horse of the Year, Habibti, to win the July Cup, the Nunthorpe Stakes, the Haydock Sprint Cup and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. Collectively, they contributed towards a seasonal total of 159 winners in Britain, which was enough to make Carson Champion Jockey for the fifth and final time, nine winners ahead of Lester Piggott.

Brazilian-born jockey Silvestre De Sousa was a latecomer to horse racing but, in 2000, at the age of 20, was Champion Apprentice in his native country just three years after sitting on a horse for the first time. De Sousa left Brazil in 2004 and, having initially struggled to establish himself in the British Isles, went very close to winning his first jockeys’ title in 2011, eventually losing out 165-161 to Paul Hanagan.

Shortly afterwards, he became a retained jockey with Goldolphin, the powerful stable operated by Sheikh Mohammed, but despite finishing second in the jockeys’ table in 2012, and third in 2013, by 2014 had drifted away from his main employers for the previous two years. So much so, in fact, that in the Derby that year he rode 125/1 outsider Our Channel, trained by William Haggas, against better-fancied Godolphin rivals.

In any event, despite not being retained by a major yard, and not even being quoted in the betting for the jockeys’ championship at the start of the season, in 2015, De Sousa was Champion Jockey for the first time, with 132 winners. His domestic total included just one Group 1 winner, Arabian Queen, trained by David Elsworth, in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York, but his victory was memorable because the horse he beat was the hitherto unbeaten Golden Horn, winner of the Derby and the Coral-Eclipse Stakes and, subsequently, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

De Sousa lost out on the jockeys’ title, again, in 2016, after Jim Crowley made a remarkable charge in August and September to beat him by 16 winners. However, in 2017, by mid-summer De Sousa was already 19 winners clear of his rivals – including six in one day on June 16 – and was a runaway winner of his second jockeys’ title with 143 winners. His most prestigious winner that season was another trained by David Elsworth, Desert Skyline, in the Doncaster Cup, but he rode plenty more high-profile winners, including Withhold in the Cesarewitch Handicap at Newmarket.

After a slow start, De Sousa retained his title in 2018, making it three in four years, with 148 winners. Major domestic successes included Ostillo, trained by Simon Crisford – formerly racing manager to Sheikh Mohammed – in the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot, Pretty Pollyana, trained by Michael Bell, in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket and Dark Vision, trained by Mark Johnston, in the Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.