OFF THE RECORD #31

Trailblazers in the Saddle:
The Standards in Jockeying Excellence

Above: Richard Fourie and fans

Despite his record-setting performances, South Africa’s supremely talented jockey, Richard Fourie, astonishingly does not feature in the Top 70 on the latest LONGINES table for 'World’s Best Jockeys'. The South Africans nearest to the top are Warren Kennedy (21st, now based in New Zealand) and Aldo Domeyer, who occupies 30th position.

The LONGINES scoring system for their annual award is based on performances in the 100 highest-rated Group 1 and Grade 1 races established for the year by the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings Committee.

Though considered by some as the international gold standard for jockeys, the LONGINES ranking system is strongly disputed by others for its limited scope and the emphasis on a select few major races. If the LONGINES ratings accurately reflected current form, Fourie, with his remarkable 336 winners in just ten-and-a-half months, would undoubtedly be near the top of the international rankings.

To gain some perspective, let's explore how Fourie's record, aiming for a final tally of 365 winners by July 31, stands in the broader context of international racing history. His overall career tally is 2,355 winners (at the time of writing), including 50 Grade 1s. I’ve reviewed the available statistics covering racing in South Africa, the UK, Ireland, the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, France, and Brazil.

Historically, racing scribe Alan Breck detailed Harold 'Tiger' Wright's record of 175 winners from 731 mounts in the 1949/50 season, noting its enduring significance in the SA Racehorse of July 1973: “Tiger’s record number of winners (175, strike rate 23.9%) is likely to stand for all time!” Breck's statement can be forgiven considering that, in the 1970s, races were held only once or twice a week, and jockeys were not jetting around the country for rides as they do today.

Above: Michael 'Muis' Roberts

Twenty years later, Michael Roberts surpassed Tiger’s record by riding 185 winners (19%) in the 1979/80 season. He was one of the first South Africans to seize opportunities around the country. ‘Muis’ bettered his own record in 1985, riding 203 winners (20%). This stood for 12 years until two days before the end of the 1986/7 season when Jeff Lloyd rode two winners at the old Newmarket racecourse, first equalling the record and then setting a new benchmark of 204 winners.

The accomplished Roberts won 11 successive South African titles, a record shared with Wright, who won two titles before he was interrupted for two seasons by Cocky Feldman, and then chalked another nine successive championships. Feldman himself won seven titles before an unexpected heart attack claimed his life in 1950.

Roberts moved to the UK in 1986 and, in 1992, won the British Flat Jockeys Title as a traveling freelancer with 206 winners—a feat still regarded as one of the greatest sporting achievements in South African history. He was one of the few jockeys born outside the British Isles and the first since Steve Cauthen, in 1987, to become Champion Jockey. Moreover, he became just the fourth jockey since 1840—after Fred Archer, Tommy Loates, and Sir Gordon Richards—to ride over 200 winners in a season.

Although a win in this prestigious Epsom Derby eluded him, Roberts won most of the other major British races at least once during his roughly 15-year stint in the UK. He also won the Japan Cup and rode Graded winners in France, and elsewhere in Europe. He competed in the era of Pat Eddery, Willie Carson, Walter Swinburn and a young Frankie Dettori, and rode often against the great Lester Piggott.

Lloyd, another legend in his own time, rose to the top in four continents, riding over 5000 winners in 10 countries, including 94 wins at Grade/Group 1 level. He won six South African titles, five Mauritian Championships and four titles in Brisbane, Queensland, which included one Australian Metro title. At the age of 54 years in 2016, Lloyd became the oldest jockey to win the Queensland Metropolitan Jockey’s Premiership. He won it for the next three seasons and retired after the last of his premierships in 2018/2019. In 30 November, 2016, Jeff rode seven Metropolitan winners on a twelve-race card at Corbould Pard – the first jockey to achieve the feat in Australian history.

The man who broke Lloyd’s SA record was the incomparable Piere “Striker” Strydom, who booted home 211 wins from 942 rides in 2001/2 at a strike rate of 22,4%. He was chasing the title in 1997/8 when his tally got to a stunning 329 wins, achieved despite taking three week-long suspensions. Piere quipped earlier this week: “That number just happened, I wasn’t solely focused on my number of winners. If there was a R1-million carrot dangling, I think I would have ridden more winners that season.”

The very next season, 1998/9, Anthony Delpech threw his heart and soul at Striker’s target and rode 334 winners. He went on to a distinguished international career. Delpech’s mark was described as ‘untouchable’ by members of the media and even ‘impossible’ to match or better, by racing fans writing on forums, earlier this season.

But Fourie has done it, without a great amount of fuss. In an interview last week, the modest rider suggested that his record will be breakable, whichever number it reaches at the end of the season. “I do want to make it tough for the next guy,” he added. It sure will be, and that next guy may not have been born yet. Echoing Alan Breck’s prediction about Tiger Wright 50 years ago, I confidently predict that Richard Fourie’s 2023/24 record is likely to stand for all time.

For number of Grade/Group 1 wins, the retired Anton Marcus, on 110 G1s, is well clear of Lloyd on 94, and Strydom on 90. The exact numbers for Roberts and Delpech could not be established, though both would probably be just below Strydom’s 90. Felix Coetzee, by his own research, rode 75 G1 winners.

WORLD RECORDS

Above:  Jorge Ricardo

The most ever wins by a jockey is 13,304 (and counting), ridden by Jorge Ricardo from Brazil. He surpassed the long-time record-holder, Russel Baze from the US, in February 2018, and while official statistics are not easy to come by, Ricardo updated his Instagram account after his 13,304^th win, in Rio Da Janeiro, just a few days ago. He is 63 years old, won 25 successive titles in Brazil, including 160 G1’s in his native Brazil and Argentina. He also holds the Brazilian record of 477 winners in a season, established in 1993, and the Argentinian record of 465 winners in a season in 2008.

Group 1 records for jockeys are not easy to find or compare, but Frankie Dettori possibly holds the record for the most G1 wins on 287, and counting. The achievement that forever established Dettori as one of the greatest jockeys of all time happened on 28 September 1996, when he won seven out of seven races on a single day of the Royal Ascot Festival.

On June 4, 2005, at Calder Race Course in Miami, Panamanian jockey Eddie Castro set what is thought to be a world record with 9 winners on a 13-race card.

Colin Moore holds the distinction of being the oldest jockey in the world to win a race. At the age of 81, he achieved this feat by winning the Newmarket Town Plate in 2021, a historic contest that has been run since 1666. His victory surpassed the previous record held by Harry Beasley, who won a horse race at the age of 71 in 1923 in Ireland.

UNITED KINGDOM

Above: Sir Gordon Richards

The legendary Sir Gordon Richards (1904-1986), holds the record of 269 wins in a flat racing season, posted in 1947. Frankie Dettori came nearest to that with 233 wins in 1994. The late Sir Gordon also heads the log for number of titles and has 26 Championships to his name.

The late Lester Piggott, with a career tally of 5300, is the winningmost UK jockey of all time, and he also rode a record 30 classic winners.

Take note of one other jockey regarded as the best of all time, and even better than Richards. He was Fred Archer (1857- 1886), who racked up a British record of 13 successive titles and rode 2748 winners from 8084 starts (33%), before he committed suicide, aged 29.

Jumping legend, Sir AP McCoy, is ahead of them all with 289 wins in a single season. He won 21 successive titles before his retirement in 2015.

Ryan Moore (700) has the most British Group & Listed wins of any active jockey.

IRELAND

Michael Kinane (13) holds the record for most Irish titles and six successive titles, while Colin Keane (141) has the record for most winners in a season.

UNITED STATES

Russel Baze, with 10 championships, has won more titles than any other US jockey, and his 12,844 career winners remains the standing US record. In 1989, Kent Desormeaux set the benchmark for wins in a single calendar year with 598.

While he only won a single US title, Bill Shoemaker (1931 – 2003) is popularly regarded as the greatest American rider in history. He held the record for numbers of winners ridden for 29 years (1970 – 1999), and won no fewer than 11 Triple Crown races.

FRANCE

France has produced a long line of world-class jockeys, including Oliver Peslier, Christophe Soumillon, Maxine Guyon, Mikael Barzelona , Christian Demuro and Christophe Lemaire. The most accomplished Frenchman is Yves St Martin, who won 14 successive titles between 1960 and 1984.

Soumillon, with 10 titles of his own, set a European record for number of winners in a season. He notched 305 successes in 2017.

HONG KONG

South Africa’s Douglas Whyte won a record 13 successive championships between 2000-2013. Another South African Basil Marcus is second on seven titles. Joao Moreira (2015/16) and Zac Purton (2018/19) jointly hold the record for most winners in a season, on 168.

AUSTRALIA

Robert Thompson is the winningmost jockey in Australian racing history with 4447 winners. He retired at age 63, in 2021. Also retired, Damian Oliver has the most Group 1 winners (129) and is hugely popular with the Australian public.

Above: James McDonald

The Australian racing media regard relative youngster James McDonald (32) as potentially the best Aussie jock of all time, with even higher accolades from a former champion jockey. In 2021, aged 29, the New Zealand-born “J-Mac” became the fastest jockey in history to reach 50 Group 1 winners. He has ridden another 47 Group 1 winners in the three years since, which is truly amazing.

Australian Hall-Of Fame jockey, Malcolm Johnston, has declared McDonald on track to rewrite racing's record books and retire as the sport's greatest-ever jockey. Johnston, who won the Melbourne Cup on Kingston Town, said in a 2002 interview with Racenet: "I've never seen a better jockey than J-Mac. I rode against the world's best and I've watched all the great jockeys but none of them are better than James McDonald.

“We all have our strengths and weaknesses. My strengths was getting my horses into gear quicker than anyone else. Lester Piggott could do things on a horse I could only dream of. Ronnie Quinton's horsemanship was superior to anyone else. Frankie Dettori is great, Lester Piggott was great and there are more great riders. But what makes J-Mac so good is that he has all those gifts rolled into one. He has uncanny ability. What Muhammad Ali was to boxing, and Michael Jordan to basketball, James McDonald is to racing – he is that good.”

Macdonald was named World Jockey Of The Year in 2021 and he tops the current LONGINES world rankings.

BEST FEMALE JOCKEYS

In 1993, Julie Krone became the first and so far only female jockey to win a Triple Crown race riding Colonial Affair in the Belmont Stakes. She won a total of 3,704 races.

In 2015, Michelle Payne became the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup while riding Prince of Penzance.

UK-based Hayley Turner was the first woman to ever win 100 UK Flat races during a calendar year. She was UK flat racing Champion Apprentice in 2005.

Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National. She bagged the great race in 2021 race aboard Minella Times.

Jamie Kah has been the world's top-ranked female jockey since October 2020. In 2020/21 she became the first jockey to ride 100 winners in a Melbourne Metropolitan racing season. She has ridden over 1260 winners, including 14 Group 1s and a further 102 Group and Listed races.

UNBREAKABLE RECORD

On 4 June, 1923, Frank Hayes (1901 -1923) won a steeplechase at Belmont Park in New York on the 20-1 shot, Sweet Kiss. Bizarrely, he suffered a fatal heart attack in the latter part of the race, thus becoming the first and only jockey in history to ride a winner after his death. Hayes, by hook or by crook, remained perfectly balanced on the galloping filly throughout and crossed the line in calm, collected style. His misfortune was not discovered until Sweet Kiss’ owner and race officials came to congratulate him shortly after the race. It was suggested that the fatal heart attack may have been brought on by Hayes' extreme efforts to meet the weight requirements. This happened to be Hayes’ first career winner, but of course he wasn’t able to experience the joy of the moment. Nobody has ever made an attempt to equal this record.

Sources:

Bloodhorse
Equibase
SA Racehorse
racingandsports.com.au
Wikipedia.org
greatbritishracing.com
Sporting Post
Turf Talk
Racenet