Jockey

At the time of writing, Callum Rodriguez currently lies tenth in the 2024 Flat Jockeys’ Championship, having ridden 39 winners from 199 rides at a strike rate of 20%. It would be fair to say that the 27-year-old, who rode a a career-best 76 winners in 2021, following by 49 in 2022 and 52 in 2023, has successfully rebuilt his career after testing positive for cocaine at Southwell in February 2019. He was suspended pending an investigation by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and subsequently banned for six months, such that his season tally for 2019 was limited to just 27 winners.

Born in Newcastle, but raised in Heysham, near Lancaster, Lancashire, Rodriguez fought at national schoolboy level as a boxer, but, at the age of 16, opted to hang up his gloves and focus on a career in horse racing. A graduate of the Northern Racing College (now the National Horseracing College) in Doncaster, he joined Richard Ford, at Lancashire Racing Stables near Garstang, for whom he rode his first winner, Insolenceofsilence, in an apprentice handicap at Hamilton on June 4, 2015. After riding just five and eight winners in his first two seasons, in March 2017, Rodriquez joined Michael Dods in Denton, near Darlington, County Durham. That season he upped his seasonal tally to 39 winners, including Nakeeta, trained by Iain Jardine, in the Ebor Handicap at York.

In 2018, Rodriguez rode 68 winners, reaching the milestone of 95 career wins – and thereby riding out his claim – on Mustaqbal, trained by Dods, in a handicap at Carlisle on September 12, 2018. However, the lack of a weight allowance proved no obstacle to his career; his very next winner, Intense Romance, also trained by Dods, in the Listed Arran Scottish Fillies’ Sprint Stakes at Ayr nine days later, was the first ‘black type’ success of his career. He has since added 10 more, notably including the Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock on Regional, trained by Edward Bethell, on Sptember 9, 2023.

Bill Smith came, literally, within inches of a fairytale end to his riding career when, on April 28, 1984, he was involved in what was later described in the ‘Sunday Times’ as ‘the race of a lifetime’. The race in question was, of course, the Whitbread Gold Cup (now the Bet365 Gold Cup), which the history books record was won by Special Cargo, owned by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and trained by Fulke Walwyn. Since 1974, Smith had ridden 65 winners for the Queen Mother – whom he described as ‘ one of the nicest owners you could ever wish to ride for’ – and was, in fact, the regular jockey of Special Cargo.

However, for his farewell ride, Smith chose to remain loyal to the 13-year-old Diamond Edge, a stable companion of the eventual winner, on whom he had won the Whitbread Gold Cup twice, in 1979 and 1981, and the Hennessy Gold Cup (now the Coral Gold Cup) at Newbury, again in 1981. In a pulsating finish, Diamond Edge narrowly missed out on becoming the first horse to win the Hennessy Gold Cup three times, going down to Special Cargo and Lettoch, trained by Michael Dickinson, in a three-way photograph, with the first three separated by just two short heads.

Born on October 30, 1948, Smith rode his first winner, Silver Meade, trained by John Blake, as an amateur, on November 28, 1969. Two years later, on his first ride for Edward Courage, he won the SGB Chase (now the Ascot Silver Cup) on Spanish Steps and would twice finish placed in the Grand National – fourth, under 11st 9lb, in 1974 and third, under 10st 3lb, in 1975 – on the same horse. Away from Aintree, other notable winners included Royal Relief, trained by Fred Rimmell, in the Two-Mile Champion Chase (now the Queen Mother Champion Chase) twice, in 1972 and 1974, and Comedy Of Errors, also trained by Rimmell, in the Champion Hurdle in 1973.

The late Stanley ‘Stan’ Mellor MBE, who died at the age on July 31, 2020 after a long illness, was one of the outstanding jockeys of his generation. He won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship three years running, in 1959/60, 1960/61 and 1961/62, and may well have done so again in 1962/63, but for suffering serious facial injuries in a fall from Eastern Harvest in the inaugural running of the Schweppes Gold Trophy (now the Betfair Hurdle) at Aintree. Mellor had led the championship by 20 winners beforehand, but that mishap allowed his nearest rival, Josh Gifford, to make up lost ground and win his first jockeys’ title by six winners.

On December 18, 1971, Mellor rode Ouzo to victory in a novice chase at Nottingham, thereby becoming the first National Hunt jockey to ride 1,000 winners. The following year, in which he was also awarded an MBE for services to racing, he retired on a winning note, courtesy of Arne Folly at Stratford on June 2, with a then record 1,035 winners to his name. For all his success elsewhere, Mellor will probably always be best remembered for his canny, half-length defeat of the legendary Arkle on Stalybridge Colonist in the 1966 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

As a jockey, Mellor did return to the saddle for one last hurrah in the aptly-titled ‘Old and Bold Stakes’, a ‘celebrity’ race run over a mile and a half at Uttoexeter on September 9, 1991, in aid of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund. He justified odds-on favouritism on Rock Face, trained by Sir Mark Prescott and in so doing defeated the likes of Brough Scott and Lord Oaksey. Aside from his 1,035 winners over jumps in Britain, Mellor rode nine more in Ireland, five further abroad and five on the Flat.

At the time of writing Sean Bowen currently leads the 2024/25 National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship, albeit narrowly, having ridden 38 winners from 216 rides at a strike rate of 18%. Of course, he narrowly missed out on his maiden title in 2023/24, eventually finishing just seven winners behind Harry Cobden, after a knee injury sustained in a fall at Aintree on Boxing Day caused him to miss the whole of January.

Born on September 5, 1997 in Little Newcastle in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, Bowen is the eldest son of trainer Peter Bowen, but it was for compatriot Bernard Llewellyn that he rode his first winner, Kozmina Bay, in a ‘Hands and Heels’ novices’ handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter on December 20, 2013. In 2014/15, with the backing of Paul Nicholls, he rode 51 winners, clinching the conditional jockeys’ title with victory on Lil Rockefeller, trained by Neil King, in the first race of the final meeting of the season, Bet365 Jumps Finale Day at Sandown Park, on April 25, 2015. By way of celebrating becoming, at the time, the youngest-ever Champion Conditional Jockey, at the age of 17, he also won the feature race of the day, the Bet365 Gold Cup, on Just A Par, trained by Nicholls, the same afternoon.

Two years later, on April 29, 2017, Bowen won the Bet365 Gold Cup again, on 40/1 outsider Henllan Harri, trained by his father, a victory that he later said had given him the ‘most pleasure’ in his career. In that same interview, he also said that his first Grade 1 winner, If The Cap Fits, in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree on April 6, 2019, was ‘special’. He has since added three more to his career tally, namely Metier in the Tolworth Hurdle in 2021, Not So Sleepy in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle in 2024 and, most recently, Strong Leader in the Liverpool Hurdle, again, in 2024. Not bad for a jockey who is, ironically, allergic to horses.