Nowadays, Daniel Tudhope is stable jockey to David O’Meara, who, since 2016, has been based at Willow Farm, on the outskirts of York, near Upper Helmsley. Born in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland on December 1, 1985, Tudhope enrolled at the National Horseracing College (or the Northern Racing College, as it was known at the time) in Doncaster as a 16-year-old, despite having never previously sat on a horse and, by his own admission, having ‘no interest at all’ in horse racing. He graduated, nevertheless, and went on to become apprenticed to Declan Carroll in Malton, North Yorkshire.
Tudhope rode his first winner on British soil, Rust En Vrede, trained by Carroll, in a lowly Class 7 banded stakes race at Southwell, on the original Fibresand surface, on February 29, 2004. He rode 28 winners in 2004, 33 in 2005 and 53 in 2006, such that by halfway through the latter season he had exceeded the 95 winners required to ride out his claim. His riding career reached its nadir in 2010, when he partnered just six winners, but, in 2012, Silvestre de Sousa, who had effectively been riding as first jockey to O’Meara, was offered a retainer by Godolphin, presenting Tudhope with new opportunities.
As stable jockey at Willow Farm, Tudhope enjoyed is most successful season, numerically and fiscally, in 2019, when he rode 159 winners from 792 rides, at a strike rate of 20%, and amassed nearly £2.9 million in total prize money. In the most recently completed season, 2023, he rode 85 winners, including 65 during the ‘window’ on which the Flat Jockeys’ Championship is decided, to finish in ninth place.
Tudhope reached the landmark of 1,000 career winners on Ingleby Hollow, trained by O’Meara, at Thirsk on June 3, 2019. Thus far, he has a total of nine Group 1 wins to his name, the most recent of which came aboard Fallen Angel, trained by Karl Burke, in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh on May 26, 2024.
