Born in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, in Southern Africa on March 7, 1988, Sean Levey moved to Ireland with his family in his early teens. He became apprenticed to Aidan O’Brien in Ballydoyle, County Tipperary at the age of 17 and over the next six years or so rode 46 winners on Irish soil, including Psalm I, trained by O’Brien, in the Group 3 Concorde Stakes at Tipperary on October 5, 2008.
Still in receipt of a 5lb claim, despite having ridden in every Irish Classic, and the Prix de ‘Arc de Triomphe, in 2011 Levey moved to England to join David O’Meara in Upper Helmsley, near Nawton, North Yorkshire. He joined Richard Hannon Snr. in East Everleigh, near Marlborough, Wiltshire shortly afterwards and, nowadays, alongside Pat Dobbs, is stable jockey to Richard Hannon Jnr..
Levey rode his first of his nine Group 1 winners, 66/1 rank outsider Billesdon Brook, trained by Hannon, in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May 2018. In October 2019 he doubled his Group 1 tally when winning the Kingdom Of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes, also at Newmarket, on the same horse and two weeks later also won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on King Of Change. Levey has ridden 50 or more winners in every season since 2013, bar 2018, when he missed the second half of the season through injury, 2020, when he rode 49, and 2024, when he rode 49.His most successful season, numerically, was 2017, when he rode 73 winners.
