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Of the eleven Grade 1 races at Cheltenham last week, ten were won by jockeys aged over 30, and in most cases, well over 30. The sole exception was Jamie Moore and even he is 29.
The same stat applies to the top five jockeys in the winners table this season – AP is 39, Johnson is 36, Maguire is 33, Fehily is 37 and Scu is 31. Sooner or later those guys are going to have to retire and at present it’s difficult to spot the obvious replacements.
The stakes are certainly high enough, with around £7M a year currently being picked up by those five in riding fees and winning percentages.
It’s also interesting to look back and find that fifteen years ago, the same two jockeys were atop the winners table and the only over-30 in the top five was Dunwoody, so this current domination by veterans is not a normal state of affairs.
As for the potential replacements, well Alan King has Hutchison already in place and Hobbs has Tom O’Brien, but Henderson, Nicholls and Jonjo/McManus seem less well prepared.
Personally, I reckon Richie McLernon has improved a great deal this season and could handle the job at Jackdaws, but despite his big race Cheltenham success he only has 23 winners this season, so it’s a giant step up.
One of the big diffeences between now and the 90’s is the lack of young riders coming from Ireland to ride here, as AP, Adrian Maguire, Norman Williamson, Mick Fitzgerald did back then. I’m not close enough to the Irish scene to know if that’s because the youngsters aren’t emerging over there, or because they get good enough deals in Ireland not to need to make the move.
I just wonder who will be riding for those big yards and owners at Cheltenham in three or four years time.
AP …I will give you 4 names
Sam Twiston ….potential champ of the future
Gavin Sheehan
Kevin Cotter (Ireland )
John King (Ireland )
I would be very surprised if these guys were not prominent names 3/4 years from now
I’s say the compression of big money/owners into a small number of powerful stables, the unjustified increase in the number of Class 1 races in the National Hunt program, and jumps racing unhealthy obsession with the festival has a lot to do with it.
All of the above means the opportunities just aren’t there for jockeys on the Northern circuit anymore or Irish racing beyond the few who’ll ride for the Mullins and Gigganstown operations.
Its become boring imo. Granted the festival is still a week like no other.
Sam T-D as a future champion. Can’t remember the name of the horse, but he gave a very AP-esque ride on Sunday at Ffos Las.
I don’t see this as anything other than a minor issue, if indeed it is one at all. If there was ever a shortage of jockeys to match the number of horses then clearly it would be a problem.
Jockeys appear to last longer these days. The top five list mentioned didn’t include the likes of Geraghty, Walsh and Cooper who are arguably better than those mentioned. It is very unlikely that they are all going to retire in the same season. When they do retire is it such a bad thing if the better rides might be spread out a little more? I would have thought it is far better that you earn your way up the pecking order.
Brian Hughes is extremely capable. well deserved festival success last week. Sam Twiston-Davies is nailed on for a top job. I also reckon if Lucy Alexander were a boy she’d be getting a lot more opportunities.
Brian Cooper and Sam Twister are certainly top jockeys in the making. Wonder if O’Leary gave Cooper the main job now because he could foresee him being offered a top job in Britain. I’d say Brendan Powell and Aidan Coleman could step up too.
Richie McLernon has improved this season, but personally I’d have given Maurice Linehan more rides. Though suspect when AP does retire someone will be brought in at McManus Towers.
Of the British based conditionals I’ve been very impressed with Nico De Boinville.
We are currently extremely lucky to have (imo)
THE
best three National Hunt jockeys of all time, AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh and Barry Gerraghty. It isn’t surprising these three have dominated for so long and therefore hard for up and coming jockeys to break through. But imo some are capable of stepping up once that threesome retire.
Value Is EverythingNo shortage of nascent talent in the Pointing field, for them as are inclined to look.
Jack Teal could have gone conditional with Malcolm Jefferson by now, but can only benefit for taking in a (first) full season of racing between the flags instead. Sparing, "held up in front", pace-dictating rides already look a particular strong point (he nearly got a 16-year-old home first in a Dalton Park Open under such tactics last weekend, indeed), but the clock in his head is equally finely attuned to delivering more patient rides expertly.
I need another couple of looks at Sean Bowen, son of Peter. He was in the process of giving a wicked old character a superb, and likely successful, ride on his first Pointing start at Barbury in December when his only mistake put him on the ground, but the reports I’ve had since then have been nothing but good. He, along with Teal, would be among the best of what’s already proven to be a good intake of novice and rookie riders so far this term.
Let’s see where either of these two are in a decade.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Plenty of decent jockeys coming through the ranks in my opinion: Cooper, Townend, Enright, O’Connell, Fogarty, McGarvey, Heskin among others.
I think there’s a reasonable amount of young talent around and that there always has been. The problem over the last 5-10 years has been that it’s been incredibly difficult for the youngsters to break through because the likes of AP, Ruby, Richard Johnson and Barry Geraghty (for whom I do not share the enthusiasm of other posters) have lasted so long at the top and in the top jobs. I think we’ve pretty much lost an age-group of jockeys through a) lack of opportunity to shine and to develop on the big stage and b) the constant, unfavourable, comparison with some truly sublime, and very different, talents. Will the youngsters measure up? I don’t know. Whatever happens, we need to appreciate the old guard while we have them because there’s no doubt that the end of an era is nigh …
Sam Twiston-Davies seems to have added some serious brute strength to his assets recently. He just pounded home Speed Master at Warwick, in spite of the horse hanging off the final turn and being under pressure long before the second.
He looked like a Pipe era McCoy there.
I’d say he looks tidy enough over hurdles, but I’m not yet convinced about him over fences.
But then his entire riding career so far has produced about as many rides as the likes of AP get every three months, so hardly surprising that he needs more time, and to ride without the allowance, before he should really be judged.
Apologies if this sounds like an old man sounding off about the good old days, but the very first time I saw McCoy and Johnson ride, it was pretty clear that given the right opportunities, they would be top class.
McCoy as a 7lb claimer rode a reluctant mare of Toby Baldings called Anna Valley at Worcester. She had previously made the likes of Frost, Maguire (Adrian) and Guest look silly at times in a career of around 20 races that had produced one hard fought win as favourite in a maiden hurdle.
He had her in front soon after halfway, but at the point where she would normally slow down and wait for the opposition, he just pushed and kicked and refused to let her give in. He repeated the trick about a month later. His will to win was obvious even then. Johnson produced similar rides as an amateur and made the same impression from his early days.
It’s a long time since any young jump jockey made such an instant impact on me – in fact the last one was James Davies and his career has been a disappointment.
It’s probable that Walsh and Geraghty would have stood out just as much at an early age, but they weren’t riding here so I didn’t see them in the flesh until they were established.
I can understand the various mentions of Sam T-D that have been posted, but I’m not yet a convert. Just not sure that he’d cope away from the comfort blanket of riding for Dad, but I’d be delighted to be proved wrong.
I liked what I saw of Jeremiah McGrath when he first joined the Henderson stable (wrote about him on here), but injuries and weight problems have left him with very few chances this season. I hope he can get back on track, but he might have to move to get more rides.
Great post AP. Would you be willing to share your thoughts on Nico de Boinville too?
Thanks
I think you are right about HD, he seems to have been ‘looked after’ and would have benefited more from being given any ride, not specific rides. S. TD (not great initials) and Brendon Powell Jnr seem to have had to take the rough with the smooth and are probably well ahead of HD in experience, they will have learnt a lot riding all sorts of horses and having to make the best of them. If there wasn’t a family tie with HD in the Nicholls yard I guess he wouldn’t be used. Be interesting to see how it all pans out. Good post.
Obi,
I confess that when N de B started out riding as an amateur, I assumed he was just another on the assistant trainer treadwheel at Seven Barrows and would soon be off to set up on his own.
But now he’s turned pro, that seems not to be the case – but as with Derham, there’s not much evidence as yet, as he’s only had 60 odd rides for his home stable. Can’t deny he looked good last week and he has an excellent strike rate and a level stake profit over hurdles.
The problem he’s likely to face before long is that claiming riders come and go in this yard and it’s hard to remember one that established himself as a top ten rider. In recent years for example, the yard has had David Bass, Jeremiah McGrath, Richie Killoran, Felix de Giles and Marcus Foley. The only one with any solid link to another yard is Andrew Tinkler, who gets most of the rides from Henry Daly.
It’s obviously difficult for the young lads that work for Henderson and Nicholls – stay put and they get on good horses even as the third or fourth choice rider – or move on and probably ride worse horses for less prize money.
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