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The History of the British Jump Jockey Championship

Posted in Horse Racing by

Good Evening!

Welcome to a new post here at zoelouisesmithx.com! Today I am going to take a look at the history of the British jump jockey championship and a little look at this years competition, so without further ado let’s get right into it.

The British Jump Jockey Championship’s inception was in 1900. For the first 25 year, the award was given to the jockey who had ridden the most winners during a calendar year, however beginning in 1926, this changed to the way we see it today, the award would start going to the jockey who had ridden the most winners during a season.

Surprisingly, it was not until the 2015-2016 season that the Champion Jockey won prize money, with the 2015-2016 Champion Richard Johnson receiving £15,000 and smaller prizes going to the next 4 on the leader board. From 2016 any Champion Jockey receives a new trophy designed by Asprey and chosen by the award winning Champion Jockey Sir AP McCoy after the previous one was gifted to Sir AP McCoy upon his retirement.

This years title race will be decided between Saturday 1st May 2021 and Saturday 23rd April 2022.

Now let’s take a look at some winners! Please bare in mind any winner before 1925 was within a calendar year – beyond that is in a season.

The first ever winner in 1900 was H. S Sidney 52 wins, he was also an amateur at the time of winning the title. We then see Frank Mason win for the first time in 1901 with 58 wins, he then won it again in 1902 (67 wins), 1904 (59 wins), 1905 (73 wins), 1906 (58 wins) and 1907 (59 wins).

If we then skip forward a little in 1920 Fred Rees won with 64 wins before winning again multiple times. 1921 (65 wins), 1923 (64 wins), 1924 (108 wins – the first time a jockey hit a century of wins) and again in the 1926-1927 season with 59 wins.

The next 5 seasons were dominated by Billy Stott who firstly won in the 1927-1928 season with 88 wins, 1928-1929 with 76 wins, 1929-1930 with 77 wins, 1930-1931 with 81 wins and in 1931-1932 with 77 wins.

Gerry Wilson was the next jockey to dominate when winning 7 times in 9 seasons starting in 1932-1933 with 61 wins, 1933-1934 with 56 wins, 1934-1935 with 73 wins, 1935-1936 with 57 wins, 1936-1937 with 45 wins, 1937-1938 with 59 wins then again in the 1940-1941 season with 22 wins.

The two seasons in between Gerry Wilson’s victories were won by Fred Rimell, in 1938-1939 with 61 wins and then in 1939-1940 with 22 wins.

Racing was suspended in the 1942-1943 season as well as the 1943-1944 season before returning in the 1944-1945 season where it was actually a draw with Frenchie Nicholson and Fred Rimell both finishing the season on 15 wins. Fred Rimell then won it on his own in the 1945-1946 season with 54 wins.

Skipping forward a few years Tim Molony won 4 years in a row starting with the 1948-1949 season with 50 wins, 1949-1950 with 95 wins, 1950-1951 with 83 wins, 1951-1952 with 99 wins.

Fred Winter then won for the first time in 1952-1953 with 121 wins, before winning again in 1955-1956 with 74 wins, 1956-1957 with 80 wins and 1957-1958 with 82 wins.

If we skip forward a little bit in 1968-1969 Terry Biddlecombe and Bob Davies both finished with 77 wins and sharing the title.

Other winners include John Francome in the 1975-1976 season with 96 wins, 1978-1979 with 95 wins, 1980-1981 with 105 wins, before sharing the title in 1981-1982 with Peter Scudamore after both finishing with 120 wins. He then continued to win the title in 1982-1983 with 106 wins, 1983-1984 with 131 wins and again in 1984-1985 with 101 wins.

In between John Francome’s reign, Jonjo O’Neill won the title twice, firstly in 1977-1978 with 149 wins and again in 1979-1980 with 115 wins.

Starting in the 1985-1986 season we see Peter Scudamore’s reign begin with 91 wins, followed up in 1986-1987 with 123 wins, 1987-1988 with 132 wins, 1988-1989 with 221 wins (setting a new record for most wins and the first time a jockey had 200 or more winners in a season), again in 1989-1990 with 170 wins, 1990-1991 with 141 wins and again in 1991-1992 with 175 wins.

The next 3 seasons were won by Richard Dunwoody with 173 wins in the 1992-1993 season, 197 wins in the 1993-1994 season and finally with 160 wins in the 1994-1995 season.

In the 1995-1996 season the record breaking reign of Sir AP McCoy began:

1995-1996: 175 wins
1996-1997: 190 wins
1997-1998: 253 wins (breaking Peter Scudamore’s record of most wins in a season)
1998-1999: 186 wins
1999-2000: 245 wins
2000-2001: 191 wins
2001-2002: 289 wins (breaking his own record of most wins in a season)
2002-2003: 258 wins
2003-2004: 209 wins
2004-2005: 200 wins
2005-2006: 178 wins
2006-2007: 184 wins
2007-2008: 140 wins
2008-2009: 186 wins
2009-2010: 195 wins
2010-2011: 218 wins
2011-2012: 199 wins
2012-2013: 185 wins
2013-2014: 218 wins
2014-2015: 231 wins

When Sir AP McCoy retired, we then see Richard Johnson win 4 consecutive titles starting in 2015-2016 with 235 wins, in 2016-2017 with 180 wins, 2017-2018 with 176 wins and in 2018-2019 with 200 wins.

The final two winners were Brian Hughes in 2019-2020 with 141 wins and in the 2020-2021 season Harry Skelton with 152 wins.

So some records within the race. The jockey with the most titles and most consecutive titles is Sir AP McCoy who won 20 times consecutively between 1995 and 2015.

The jockey with the most wins in one season is also Sir AP McCoy who won 289 times in the 2001-2002 season.

The jockey who came second the most times is Richard Johnson who finished second behind Sir AP McCoy before finally winning the title after Sir AP McCoy’s retirement.

So onto this years title. (All odds are via PaddyPower and are correct at the time of writing this post and all winner figures so far are also correct at the time of writing this post – 25/05/2021 at 22:15)

The current favourite at Evens is Brian Hughes who has currently had 135 rides with 23 wins. A strike rate of 17%.

The second favourite is Harry Skelton at 11/8 who has had 52 rides with 14 wins. A strike rate of 27%.

The third is Harry Cobden at 4/1 who has had 15 rides with 4 wins. A strike rate of 27%.

The rest are 33/1 or bigger, including Sam Twiston-Davies, Aidan Coleman and Nico de Boinville all at 33/1 and Sean Bowen, David Bass and Tom Scudamore at 66/1 and Bryony Frost at 100/1.

The season has only just began so there is a long way ahead of us and the current standings will of course change once the winter comes around and more jumps horses are running. However I do think it’s going to be another exciting renewal. Last years came down to the wire between Brian Hughes and Harry Skelton and with Harry Cobden in the running and hopefully free this time around it could be a quite exciting one to watch. For me I think Harry Skelton could retain the title, but it’ll be too close to call.

I hope you all enjoyed this one and I will see you all Saturday at 11am for a new post!

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Eight Interesting Horse Racing Facts You May Not Know

Posted in Horse Racing by

Good Evening!

Welcome to a new post here at zoelouisesmithx.com! Today’s is an interesting one where I look at 8 facts you may or may not know about horse racing, so without further ado, let’s get right into them!

First up, the fastest recorded speed for a thoroughbred racehorse was recorded on May 14th in 2008 at Penn National Racecourse in Pennsylvania. Winning Brew is a mare who was born in 2006 and was put into training with Francis Vitale by owner Ronald Francoeur. At two years old she broke the Guinness World Record for being the fastest racehorse in the world when she covered a two mile distance (402 metres) in 20.57 seconds, which averages 70.76 kilometers per hour which is roughly 43.97 miles per hour.

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/753649318870858742/

The biggest racehorse in history is believed to be Holy Roller. The gelding was 18.1 hands high and was estimated to weigh 1,800 pounds (around 660 pounds heavier than average) – he could not be weighed on a scale as he was so big, therefore they could only estimate how much he weighed. His head along weighing in at 110 pounds. His feet were trimmed as short as possible to fit into a size 8 shoe – 3 sizes bigger than a typical racehorse.

However it is important to note that in December of 2020 the owners of a horse called Shinshinto came out to say they believe their horse is the new tallest standing at 18.2 hands – however this is yet to be confirmed.

To put this into perspective, Frankel was considered to be a decent sized horse at 16.1 hands whilst dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll measures 15.2 hands.

https://horsenetwork.com/2014/07/holy-roller-one-hella-big-racehorse/

It is no secret that in horse racing, jockeys need to be carrying the lowest weight they possibly can. In 1841, what is believed to be the lowest weight in history was made when a jockey known as Kitchener rode in the Chester Cup on a horse called Red Deer where he weighed just 2 stone and 12 pounds. The saddle and bridle etc weighed 1 stone 2 pounds which made the weight up to the 4 stone which the was handicapped. It is believed his regular body weight was 48 pounds – 3 stone and 6 pounds, so he lost 8 pounds for this race.

https://news.paddypower.com/guides/2021/01/01/horse-racing-weighed-in-out-meaning-jockey-weight-betting-stewards/

The slowest recorded time for winning a race was achieved by Never Mind II in 1945 when he finished a two mile race in 11 minutes and 28 seconds. Never Mind II refused at a fence and was abandoned by his jockey, however his jockey heard that all of the other runners in the race had either fallen or been disqualified so therefore he returned to his horse and they finished the race at their own leisure.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/best-way-win-horse-race-mathematicians-may-have-answer

One of America’s most famous jockeys George Edward Arcaro – better known as Eddie Arcaro – rode 250 losers before he finally won his first race. He then went on to win another 4,778 races in his career which included each of the races making up the American Triple Crown. He was introduced into the American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame and has won more American Classic Races in history than any other jockey and is the only jockey in history to have won the American Triple Crown Twice, once in 1941 and again in 1948. He is widely known in America as the greatest jockey in American horse racing.

https://www.saratogian.com/news/horse-racing-history-jockey-eddie-arcaro-showed-competitiveness-on-and-off-track/article_dc2dd184-82fe-5f0e-a6a7-72c60be8dd5b.html

A jockey called Levi Barlingume raced competitively until he was 80 years old. His career ended in 1932 when he broke his leg during a race – other than this injury he had no plans to retire from the saddle just yet so who knows how old he would’ve went on to be still riding.

https://e-rappaport.com/20-fatos-surpreendentes-corrida-cavalos/

The record for the longest living thoroughbred was believed to be a horse called Tango Duke who was an Australian horse who passed away at the age of 42 in 1978, however stud records in Australia do not show any record of a horse being registered with this name – so it is believed he was not a pure thoroughbred and that is why. The official longest living thoroughbred is Prospect Point who was born in Kentucky USA, however ended up in South Carolina. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 38 years old.

https://www.behindthebitblog.com/2015/03/worlds-oldest-thoroughbred.html

The oldest winning National Hunt horse is Sonny Somers who in 1980, won at Lingfield Park at 18 years old, beating 5 and 6 year olds that were in the race. He was trained by Fred Winter and Ben De Hann rode him for his record breaking race.

So there we have it, 8 interesting horse racing facts you may or may not have known. I find these posts so interesting to look into and from the figures whenever I post something like this, so do my readers. I hope you all enjoyed this one and I will see you all Saturday a 11am for a new post!