Good Morning!
Welcome to a new post here at zoelouisesmithx.com. Before I get started I want to say sorry for not posting on Wednesday evening as I normally do, I have set out my schedule of 2 posts a week and stuck to it every week, however the past few weeks I had a lot going on so I was unable to get a post wrote up that I was happy to put out there, so I chose not to post and instead get a post up today and hopefully stick to the schedule here on out for the rest of 2021.
As many of you will know, the Flat Jockey Championship started last week, so I decided for today’s post to have a little look at the history of Championship and a look at who is up there in the betting for this years title, which looks like it could be a very good renewal! So without further ado, let’s just get into it!
The Flat Jockey Championship runs between May and October each year, with this years falling between the Guineas Festival on May 1st and the British Champions Day on October 16th. Originally the Championship was decided between the Lincoln Handicap Day and November Handicap Day, however it was in 2015 it was announced it would be reduced. So instead of the 32 weeks, it is now only around 24 weeks. In 2015, it was also announced that the Champion Jockey would receive a prize of £25,000 and the runner up would receive £10,000.
The first recognised Champion was in 1840 when Nat Flatman had 50 wins. Nat Flatman then went on to win the Championship consecutively up until 1852, with 104 being his biggest tally in 1848. It was 1853 when a new person won the Championship when John Wells had 86 winners, then winning again in 1854 with 82 winners.
In 1855 a new Champion took over when George Fordham won with 70 victories, then keeping the title all the way up to 1863, with 166 victories in 1862 being his highest winning season. In 1864 Jemmy Grimshaw won the title with 164 wins, before George Fordham won it back in 1865 with 142. In 1866 Sam Kenyon won with 123 wins, before George Fordham winning it back again in 1867 with 143 wins and keeping it in 1868 with 110 wins and in 1869 with 95 wins.
In 1870 there was the first join title when William Gray and Charlie Maidment both had 76 winners, followed up by another joint win in 1871 when George Fordham and Charlie Maidment had 86 wins.
The next mentionable name is Fred Archer who started his rein of Championship victories in 1874 when he has 147 wins, he then kept the title all the way up to 1886 when he won it with 170 wins. Throughout that time he recorded some of the biggest number of winners ever seen totalling 2609, including a 210, 218, 220, 229, 232, 241 and 246.
In 1900 the first winner from outside of Britain won the title when American born Lester Reiff won with 143 victories, followed by another American born jockey Danny Maher in 1908 with 139 victories. From 1909 to 1912 Australian jockey Frank Wootton won the title with a highest winning season of 187 in 1911. Danny Maher then won the title back in 1913 with 115 victories.
Between 1914 and 1922 Steve Donoghue won the title with a highest winning season of 143 in 1920. In 1923 Steve Donoghue jointly won the title with Charlie Elliott both with 89 wins.
Between 1925 and 1953, Gordon Richards won the title a record breaking 26 times with 1947 being a record breaking season – still to be broken – with 269 wins.
In 1960, the very famous Lester Piggott won the title for the first time with 170 wins, then winning it again in 1964 and all the way up to 1971 with his highest winning season being 1966 with 191 wins. In 1972 and 1973 Willie Carson won the title with 132 wins followed by 164.
Between 1974 and 1977 Irish born Pat Eddery won the title, with 148 wins followed by 164, 162 and 176. In 1978, Willie Carson won the title back with 182 victories, before winning it again in 1980 with 166 wins. Followed by Lester Piggott regaining the title in 1981 and 1982 with 179 and 188 wins. Before Willie Carson won the title back again in 1983 with 159 wins.
In 1992 the first South African born jockey won the title, this being Michael Roberts with 206 wins. In 1994 and 1995, Italian born Frankie Dettori won the title with 233 victories followed by 211 victories. In 1997, 1998 and 1999 Irish born Kieren Fallon won the title with 202, 204 and 200 wins. Before regaining the title back in 2001 and keeping it until 2003 with 166, 136 and 207 wins, before Frankie Dettori retained the title in 2004 with 192 wins.
In 2005, another Irish born jockey win, this time being Jamie Spencer with 163 wins, followed by Ryan Moore in 2006 with 180 wins. In 2007 we seen another joint win when Seb Sanders and Jamie Spencer both had 190 wins. In 2008 and 2009, Ryan Moore regained the title with 186 and 174 wins. In 2010 and 2011 Paul Hanagan won the title with 191 and 165 wins. Between 2012 and 2014 Irish born Richard Hughes won the title with 172, 208 and 161 wins.
In 2015, we see Brazilian born Silvestre de Sousa win the title for the first time with 132 wins. Jim Crowley won in 2016 with 148 wins, before Silvestre de Sousa won the title back in 2017 with 155 wins and keeping it in 2018 with 148 wins. For 2019 and 2020 we seen current Champion Jockey Oisin Murphy crowned with 168 victories in 2019 and 142 in 2020.
The person with the most titles is Gordon Richards who won it a massive 26 times, he also holds the record for the most wins in one season when he recorded 269 wins in 1947.
The most consecutive titles is 13, which is held by Nat Flatman who won between 1840 and 1852 and then done again by Fred Archer between 1874 and 1886.
On to this years Championship. (I have got all odds from the Sky Bet website and they were correct at time of editing on 07/05/2021.)
The favourite for this years title race is currently William Buick who is 7/4, followed very closely by Oisin Murphy at 2/1. Third up is the person currently at the top of the table, Ben Curtis with 7 wins out of 25 rides (Strike rate of 28%) who is 11/4. We then have the best couple in sport in the next two spots Tom Marquand at 5/1 and Hollie Doyle at 11/2. It then opens up with Daniel Tudhope, James Doyle, Ryan Moore and Silvestre de Sousa at 33/1 with Andrea Atzeni at 50/1. There is then Ben Robinson, David Egan, David Probert, Jim Crowley, Kevin Stott and Luke Morris all at 66/1 with Cieren Fallon and Paul Hanagan at 100/1.
So overall, it looks a pretty open race, with the top 5 all with a very good chance of winning the title, but as we all know, anything can happen in racing!
Who do you think will win the title this year? Let me know over on Twitter. I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the Flat Jockey Championship and I will see you all in my next post!
zoelouisesmithx 