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A pleasing list. I wus just watching the great Eclipses of recent years and was wondering as a result. <br>If you can make a case for another, feel free.
Frankie Dettori is a bit of a glaring omission. He’d be ahead of G.Duffield, J.Murtagh & J.Spencer for me and personally he’s as good a jockey as most of the others on that list IMO.
If I owned a top class race horse and had the choice of any jockey around I would pick Frankie to ride it. I know most other people would pick Keiran Fallon and believe me I’d still be really confident with him on board. However, out of the two I’d go for Frankie.
The best I saw from that list would probably be Steve Cauthen. A superb judge of pace that guy had.
I never saw much of Lester Piggott and Bill Shoemaker, they were a bit before my time but I suppose those two would get the most votes normally.
Dettori was at No.11 in the poll, but there were only 10 spaces :biggrin: <br>I personally rate Dettori, but it helps when you have the most powerful force in racing in your corner to buy up all the best bloodstock for you to ride. Of course, that doesn’t detract from his ability at all.<br>Is a jock’s ability defined by what he can get out of merely average horses, as well as the best horses money can buy? Who knows. <br>For me, on ability alone, Dettori would have a few above him. On a ratio of winners to rides however, he would be high up there.
In my opinion Lester is the best of all times based on his record of classis winners and total winners.
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Quote: from Racing Daily on 1:10 pm on July 8, 2006[br]….but it helps when you have the most powerful force in racing in your corner to buy up all the best bloodstock for you to ride.
<br>Why’s Fallon on the list, then?
Cauthen for me, narrowly ahead of Piggott and Eddery.
HeHeHe
I too voted Cauthen EC. He was second to Piggott only IMO, but Piggott was a poker faced old git so I prefer Stevie :)
Bloody hell EC. do you have to put a number to everything?
Pity your wife… ;)
Not sure we can really call Piggot "recent times" but ist gratifying to see that most on here agree that SC was the best.
A genius judge of pace
Frankie is a silly ommission. I know hes annoying but so ius Carson (not in frankies class either) :o
The most wonderful poker face that ever sat on a race horse. How many jockeys will drop their whip and snatch another jockey’s and justify it by saying "he didn’t need it, he was not going to win anyway".
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Imo, it isn’t something one can put numbers on, as such a lot depends on retainers, riding weight, form, fashion, etc, and, of the top jockeys, only LP regularly won the championship as a freelance and riding toward the top end of the weights, (Often 9st then, if memory serves).<br> Another way to judge would be number of losers they should have won on, not something you could tabulate, but my guess would be that KF would be in the very  low numbers along with LP, though SC would be the daddy of them all.<br> Pat Eddery, though he usually had strong retainers, imo got boxed in far too often, even in small fields, and his ride on Dushyantor in the Derby remains as one of the worst I have ever seen from a top jockey, at least on a par with Bosra Sham.
Yep, I agree. Frankie is a shocking omission. It’s weird how the most obvious choice is sometimes the easiest to forget. Dettori should be on the list, even if he is not Cauthen’s superior ;)
The measure of Piggott was the fact that he could come back from three years stir and win a Breeders Cup in his 50s. Unbelievable horseman, even if he was not the easiest man to be friends with.
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Quote: from reet hard on 7:28 pm on July 8, 2006[br]… his ride on Dushyantor in the Derby remains as one of the worst I have ever seen from a top jockey, at least on a par with Bosra Sham.<br>
<br>Think that you’re being a bit harsh on old Pat there. I backed Dushyantor (at 33s ante-post) and was fuming when I saw him come from so far behind; like you, i thought that Eddery had ridden a stinker. However, watching the race again a few days later, once I had calmed down, it became apparent that the colt was unable to go the early pace and lacked the "tactical speed" to take up a good position. Eddery did as well as he could but Dushyantor simply couldn’t go fast enough to win a Derby.
Now, if you want to talk about El Gran Senor……
:D
he gave some bad ones did Eddery…
Alot of names missing from the list anyway…Gary Stevens, Mick Kinane, Yves St. Martin etc etc. I dont think Dettori is that great.
SHL
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Yquem
Eddery lost the Derby in the first 4 furlongs on Dushyantor.<br> With a favourable inside draw in the 20 runner field, he somehow contrived to get the horse onto the outside,, barging into other runners at least twice in the process, and when they switched to the offside, he converted his still reasonable position into a hopeless one by more injudicious horsemanship.<br> I had a tidy double riding on him with Lady Carla, who had won the previous day’s Oaks, and agonised with every error he made that day.<br> Don’t know if it’s true, but rumour has it he once rode in a walk-over, and got boxed in behind the ambulance.;)  Wonderful jockey!
Best jockey of all time…….1st Lester Piggott……2nd Gary Stevens……..3rd Jerry Bailey
Best jockey in past 10 years…..1st Kieren Fallon……….2nd Mick Kinane………3rd Pat Eddery
I do rate Frankie, but his stupidness a la Dubawi in the QE2, his ban for Royal Ascot last year, etc lets him down so much. I’d definitely take Fallon, Kinane, Murtagh, Lemaire, Soumillon and Munro all above him.
The way Fallon has come back from 2 years ago when Frankie won the title has been incredible. I thought he was finished, and when he left Stoute, I thought it was the end of him. I thought him accepting the Ballydoyle job was a Get Out of Jail card, but he has proved me wrong time and time again.
He is the absolute King of Epsom, he’s the most horse-loving jockey, and he can get an extra couple of lengths out of any horse IMO. I don’t think anyone but him could have won on Ouija Board in HK last year.
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