Champion Jockeys: A List of the Good and the Greatest

by Roy Brindley, 12 August 2024

The British flat racing Champion Jockey’s title is a hotly contested prize. The greats of the sport have won the accolade at least once. Many have taken the contest multiple times. Frankie Dettori, Richard Hughes, and, more recently, Ryan Moore have not prioritised it. Nevertheless, they have claimed the title three times apiece.

Gordon Richards, being led in after winning the 1953 Derby on Pinza, was champion jockey an amazing 26 times. ©Getty

The importance of the Champion Jockey’s title is underlined by the fact that records have been kept since 1840. In previous years, Australian, Italian, American, South African and Brazilian jockeys have won the prize. Riders from the UK and Ireland have taken the bulk of titles during the past 50 years.

Join us as we look at the impressive list of champion jockeys. We will recall the more dramatic title races, consider some of the unlucky losers, and ask who is horse racing’s all-time greatest champion jockey.

Gordon Richards 26 Titles in 29 Years

Comparing generations of jockeys, like athletes of any ilk, is no simple task. While the job of riding winners is no more straightforward than it ever was, a title-chasing jockey’s life has become easier. Jockeys can no longer ride at more than one meeting a day, and since 2015, the period that decides the championship has been reduced by eight weeks.

The championship now runs between the Guineas Festival at the start of May and British Champions Day at Ascot in mid/late October. Winners on both turf and all-weather surfaces count towards the flat jockey’s championship tally. Gordon Richards has claimed more titles than any other champion jockey.

Richards died in 1989, more than three years before the first all-weather meeting was staged at Lingfield Park. It should not be forgotten that steam trains took him to most of the meetings where the coal miner’s son rode many of the 118 winners, which made him champion jockey for the first time in 1925.

Class A Murphy Owes Buick One

In recent years, William Buick and Oisin Murphy have been engaged in great battles for the championship. Murphy missed the 2022 season for breaching coronavirus protocols, misleading the British Horse Racing Authority, three 2021 alcohol breaches, and acting in a way that prejudiced the reputation of horseracing.

For good measure, Murphy was also given a three-month ban by French racing authorities in 2020 for having sexual intercourse with a class-A drug user. The encounter saw the rider produce a subsequent rule-breaking positive drug test.

Given the extraordinary timeline of events, and as the British Horseracing Authority’s rules state, “three positive race day tests for alcohol will trigger an immediate ban of between 60 and 180 days”, William Buick can consider himself unlucky not to have landed the 2021 British Flat Jockeys Championship. He failed by three winners to overhaul his rival.

In 2020, Buick also finished second in the championship. He was nine adrift on that occasion. His 2019 assault on the title was brought to a premature end when he was sidelined with a head injury sustained at Ascot in May. In Murphy’s absence, Buick did take the title in 2022. He had 29 winners in hand over his rival at the end of the 2023 campaign to retain his crown.

Did you know… Before William Buick’s first public ride, Ian Balding struck a bet with the Tote at 500/1 about the rider becoming champion jockey before the year 2020 pic.twitter.com/WkQWTsqZOl

— Roy B (@RoyTheBoyF1) October 13, 2021

Buick’s first title came two years too late for former trainer Ian Balding, who backed the Norwegian-born rider (in 2007) to become champion before 2020 at 500/1 odds. Thankfully, he placed a second bet of £50 on the jockey, taking the title at any time. Balding’s £5,000 winnings (100/1 odds) were donated to the Injured Jockey’s fund.

The most exciting championship of recent times came in 2007 when Seb Sanders and Jamie Spencer shared the spoils. A remarkable seven-month battle went down to the final day at Doncaster, where Sanders began the day one winner ahead. The advantage was nullified and then reinstated as both rode a winner during the day.

In the final race of the season, Spencer – who covered more than 2,000 miles in the final 48 hours of the season as he shuttled between his Newmarket home and Musselburgh, Wolverhampton and Doncaster racecourses – rode a second winner to land the dead-heat.

Cauthen and Eddery Served up a Thriller

In the late 1980s, Steve Cauthen versus Pat Eddery was a familiar championship showdown. Eddery had taken the title four times in the 1970s and returned from the wilderness to win it again in 1986 at the expense of Steve Cauthen. The American was the 1984 and 1985 champion. 1987’s re-match did not disappoint.

Only once since 1893 had a jockey ridden more than 190 winners in a season. By the end of 1987, both Cauthen and Eddery had surpassed that total. This season’s championship was an epic battle regularly highlighted in mainstream media. It saw riders travel the length of the country to ride in a ‘walk-over’. Ultimately, it was Cauthen who prevailed by two winning rides.

Remarkably, if it were not for a successful objection lodged by the rider of a third-placed horse in a definitive race – which Eddery ‘won’ against second-placed Cauthen – that year’s championship would have been a shared one. The demotion resulted in a swing of two on the scoreboard. Eddery would become Champion Jockey a further six times during the next nine years.

Of the riders who never became Champion Jockey, Robert Winston was among the unluckiest. The 1999 Champion Apprentice was comfortably leading the 2005 Flat Jockeys’ Championship when a horrible fall at Ayr left him with serious facial injuries and ended his hopes of taking the title.

8 November 1886. Fred Archer (aged 29), the greatest British flat racing jockey of the 19th century, committed suicide, due to severe depression, and constant dieting to keep his weight down. He was Champion Jockey for 13 consecutive years until 1886, riding 2,748 winners. pic.twitter.com/g3iGf1KR8V

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) November 8, 2023

Short-Live- Hero: Archer Was the Greatest

Most racing historians agree Fred Archer was the greatest of all champion jockeys. A legendary rider, he was the preeminent sporting figure of the Victorian era. Born in 1857 in Cheltenham – ironically known for its jump’s racecourse – Archer began his career at a young age and quickly rose to fame.

The 13-time champion’s career highlights included five Derby victories and success in other classics – the Oaks, St. Leger, 1000 and the 2000 Guineas. His exceptional skill in the saddle and ability to connect with horses is a common trait of all champion jockeys. But Archer’s dedication to riding winners of all kinds stood him apart.

The son of a Grand National winning rider, Archer was known as the ‘Tin Man’ for his morose character and reputation for being miserly with money. During his career, he travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles on horseback and in stagecoaches in the pursuit of winners.

Despite his achievements, Archer’s life was marred by tragedy. He lost his wife and son in 1884, which had a profound impact on his mental health. In 1886, at the age of 29 and with 13 consecutive titles to his name, Archer took his own life with a gun he had been given as a prize for winning a race.