Category Archives: Jockeys

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.

Born in County Clare, in the west of Ireland, Kieren Francis Fallon was the most prolific jockey riding in Britain in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Between 1988 and 2016, he rode 2,578 domestic winners, placing him eleventh in the all-time list of the most successful jockeys, numerically, in the history of British horse racing. Indeed, Fallon was Champion Jockey for six of the seven seasons between 1997 and 2003 and may, in fact, have spent an unbroken seven-year spell at the top of the jockeys’ table were it not for a career-threatening should injury sustained during a fall at Royal Ascot in 2000, which left him sidelined for six months.

Unsurprisingly, Fallon won his first jockeys’ title in 1997, the year in which he was appointed stable jockey to Henry Cecil at Warren Place, Newmarket. Fallon won the 1,000 Guineas on Sleepytime, the Oaks on Reams Of Verse, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Bosra Sham and the Sussex Stakes on Ali-Royal, all trained by Cecil, as well as the Cheveley Park Stakes on Embassy, trained by David Loder, and finished the season with 202 winners.

The Cecil-Fallon partnership continued, with no little success, until July, 1999, when Cecil sacked Fallon for “personal reasons”, Fallon sued for breach of contract and the pair settled out of court. Even so, Fallon retained his title in 1998 and 1999, with 204 and 202 winners, respectively. Highlights included Dr. Fong in the St. James’s Palace Stakes and Catchascatchcan in the Yorkshire Oaks in 1998 and Wince in the 1,000 Guineas, Ramruna in the Oaks and Oath in the Derby in 1999.

After his dismissal from Warren Place, Fallon rode as freelance jockey before, in 2000, before taking what he described as one of ‘only two jobs worth having [outside Godolphin]’, that of stable jockey to Sir Michael Stoute. Having taken some time to recover full fitness, Fallon was riding as well as ever in 2001 and, despite missing the ride on Derby favourite Golan, on whom he had already won the 2,000 Guineas, he was Champion Jockey again, with 166 winners. However, just a week before winning his fourth jockeys’ title, Fallon was sacked by Stoute after several of his leading patrons, notably Lord Carnarvon and Lord Weinstock, objected to him riding their horses.

Nevertheless, Fallon maintained a close association with Stoute, who was responsible for most of his major wins in the next two seasons. In 2002, he rode 149 winners, including Golan in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Islington in the Nassau Stakes and the Yorkshire Oaks, to win the jockeys’ title for a fifth time. In 2003, he rode 221 winners – the highest seasonal aggregate of his career – including a notable treble on Russian Rhythm in the 1,000 Guineas, the Coronation Stakes and the Nassau Stakes, his third Derby win, on Kris Kin, and a repeat performance by Islington in the Yorkshire Oaks, to become Champion Jockey for the sixth, and final, time.

Dubliner Richard Hughes rode his first winner on British soil, Scissor Ridge, at Wolverhampton in July, 1994 and his last, Belvoir Bay, at Goodwood in July, 2015. All in all, Hughes rode 2,428 domestic winners, which places him fourteenth in the all-time list of the most successful jockeys, numerically, in the history of British Flat racing.

Between 2000 and 2007, Hughes accepted a retainer from Prince Khalid Abdullah, as first jockey following the retirement of Pat Eddery in 2003, but as his tenure in the familiar pink, white and green silks came to an end, he gravitated more towards his father-in-law, Richard Hannon Snr.. Having been narrowly denied the jockeys’ title in 2010, after an epic battle with Paul Hanagan, Hughes, at the age of 39, was into the veteran stage of his career when he became Champion Jockey for the first time in 2012.

Despite missing the first month of the season after a 50-day ban imposed on him by the Indian racing authorities was upheld by the British Horseracing Authority, Hughes rode 172 winners and won the jockeys’ title in a hack canter, beating his nearest rival, Silvestre De Sousa by 41 winners. Hannon Snr. was responsible for most of his major wins that year, but his sole domestic Group 1 victory came courtesy of The Fugue, trained by John Gosden, in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.

It was a similar story in 2013. Richard Hannon Snr., who was set to hand over training duties to his son, Richard Jnr., at the end of the season, was Champion Trainer and Hughes won his first British Classic, the 1,000 Guineas, on Sky Lantern – who completed a notable treble in the Coronation Stakes and the Sun Chariot Stakes – and his second, the Oaks, on Talent, trained by Ralph Beckett. Other victories at the highest level included Toronado in the Sussex Stakes and Olympic Glory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes as Hughes comfortably held off the challenge of Ryan Moore to win his second consecutive jockeys’ title with 208 winners. In so doing, he became the first jockey since Kieren Fallon, a decade earlier, to ride over two hundred winners in a season.

The 2014 season did not start well for Hughes, who unknowingly broke a vertebra in a fall in the Sheema Classic in Dubai in late March. However, he recovered fairly quickly and commenced ‘business as usual’ with his brother-in-law Richard Hannon Jnr. Cartier Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Tiggy Wiggy won four times, culminating in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket, and Toronado won the Queen Anne Stakes, while high-profile winners for other yards include Sole Power, trained by Edward Lynam in the King’s Stand Stakes and the Nunthorpe Stakes. All in all, Hughes rode 161 domestic winners to become Champion Jockey for the third consecutive year.

Aside from being a perennial favourite of former television presenter Derek “Tommo” Thompson, Paul Hanagan, as in ‘Paul Hanagan, the man again’, also had the distinction of becoming Champion Apprentice in 1981, with 81 winners, Champion Jockey twice, in 2010 and 2011, with 191 winners and 165 winners, respectively. In so doing, Hanagan not only became just the third northern-based jockey – after Elijah Wheatley in 1905 and Kevin Darley in 2000 – to win the jockeys’ title, but also the first such jockey to do so more than once.

Despite being available at odds of 40/1 to win the jockeys’ championship at the start of the 2010 season, Hanagan rode four winners on the opening day and, at one stage, held a considerable advantage over his rivals. However, from late October onwards, when he returned from suspension, Richard Hughes staged a late rally and, on the final day of the season, needed two winners to force a dead heat. He drew a blank, though, leaving the final score at 191-189 in favour of Hanagan.

Hanagan owed many of the winners he rode that season to his boss, Richard Fahey, with whom he had been since he was 17. From his base at Musley Bank Stables, near Malton, North Yorkshire, Fahey saddled 181 winners and earned over £2 million in prize money for the first time. Domestically, his biggest wins that year came courtesy of Wootton Bassett, who was unbeaten in five starts as a juvenile, including the DBS Premier Yearling Stakes at York and the Weatherbys Insurance £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes at Doncaster on home soil.

In 2011, Hanagan was, once again, involved in a ding-dong battle for the jockeys’ title, this time with Silvestre De Sousa who, at the time, lived in Yorkshire, but was soon to relocate to Newmarket as the jockey of choice for the Godolphin operation. Once again, the title race went down to the wire, with Hanagan eventually prevailing 165-161. His biggest prize of the season, the £150,000 Tattersalls Millions 3-Y-O Sprint at Newmarket, came courtesy of Sir Reginald, trained by Fahey, and his boss weighed in with another half a dozen winners at Listed or Pattern level to help him on his way to his second jockeys’ title.