Jockey

Kieran Shoemark, whose grandfather, Bill, father, Ian and brother, Conor were all National Hunt jockeys, began his own racing career as apprentice to Andrew Balding, in Kingsclere, Berkshire, with whom he spent three years. He spent two winters in Australia and subsequently enjoyed a long association with Roger Charlton in Beckhampton, Wiltshire, before joining Charlie Hills in Lambourn, back in Berkshire. More recently, he became principal jockey to John and Thady Gosden at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket after Frankie Dettori abandoned his retirement plans to continue his riding career in the United States.

In 2017, Shoemark rode 65, including 52 in the qualifying period for the apprentices’ championship, but after a titanic tussle missed out by a single winner to David Egan. In 2024, though, he enjoyed his most successful season ever, riding 101 winners from 655 rides, at a strike rate of 15%, and collected just over £2 million in prize money.

Still only 29, Shoemark has suffered his fair share of trials and tribulation during his decade or so in the saddle. On June 30, 2018, he broke multiple ribs and punctured a lung when his mount, Cutthechat, fell fatally in a novice stakes race at Kempton Park and the following November tested postive for cocaine at the same venue and was banned for six months. Nevertheless, he has a total of 30 Group and Listed wins to his name, his biggest single payday coming on July 29, 2021, when he won the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood on Lady Bowthorpe, trained by William Jarvis.

Brought up on the Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland, Neil Callan started his racing career as apprentice to local trainer Kevin Prendergast, but after two unsuccessful years, and just a handful of rides, crossed the Irish Sea to join Karl Burke at High Haven Stables in Newmarket. He rode his first winner for the yard, Dancing Lawyer, in an apprentices’ handicap at Warwick on May 4, 1998. Champion apprentice in 1999, with 65 winners, Callan subsequently became stable jockey to North Yorkshire trainer Kevin Ryan, who would provide him with his breakthrough Group 1 winners, Amadeus Wolf in the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket and Palace Episode in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, in 2005.

That season, Callan finished runner-up in the senior jockeys’ championship with 151 winners and did so again in 2007 with a career-best 170 winners. He first went to Hong Kong in 2010, but the move became permanent and he enjoyed ’10 good years’ in the Far East before relocating, once again, to Newmarket to ride freelance. Following his return, Callan enjoyed his most successful season in 2023, when he rode 75 winners, including Triple Time, trained by Ryan, in the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot. By that stage, he had already ridden his first Group 1 winner on British soil since 2013, Fonteyn, also trained by Ryan, in the Royal Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket in 2022. Speaking of Bahrain, Callan was Champion Jockey in the island country three years running, in 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/24.

Originally from Athlone, on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, in central Ireland, Kielan Woods graduated from the Racing Academy & Centre of Education (RACE) in Kildare and rode his first winner under rules, Heroes Square, trained by Caroline Hutchinson, in a handicap hurdle at Thurles on November 27, 2009. He described Hutchinson as a ‘brilliant mentor’, but her retirement from the training ranks dictated a move to Paul Flynn, on whose suggestion he moved across the Irish Sea to join Oxfordshire trainer Charlie Longsdon a year or so later.

Woods rode his first winner for the yard, Be My Light, in a novices’ handicap hurdle at Huntingdon on January 26, 2011. Nowadays based in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, where he lives with his wife, Christy, he enjoyed his most successful season on British soil in 2022/23, when he rode 58 winners and amassed £662,185 in prize money. He had previously won the Grand Annual Chase at the Cheltenham Festival twice, on Croco Bay, trained by Ben Case, in 2019 and Global Citizen, trained by Ben Pauling, in 2022. He also rode his first Grade 1 winner, Millers Bank, trained by Alex Hales, in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree in 2022.

In recent seasons, Woods have fallen foul of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) more than once for repeated breaches of whip rules. He was suspended for 42 days in June 2023 and again, for a further 39 days, in January 2024. Nevertheless, he rode 40 winners in 2023/24 and, at the time of writing, has ridden 39 winners in 2024/25.

Josephine Gordon, 31, hails from Chittlehampton, Devon and rode her first winner, Chester’slittlegem, trained by Jo Hughes, in an apprentice training series handicap at Bath on September 4, 2013. However, she faced a protracted wait for her second, Shamrock Sheila, trained by Stan Moore (to whom she was apprenticed) in a handicap at the same venue on June 24, 2015.

After riding 16 winners in 2015 as a whole, Gordon rode 87 winners in 2016, including 50 in the qualifying period for the apprentices’ championship. Thus, she became just the third female jockey, after Hayley Turner, who tied with Saleem Golam in 2005, and Amy Ryan in 2012, to win the apprentices’ title. In 2017, Gordon fared better still, riding 106 winners – of which 33 were trained by her principal employer, Hugo Palmer – to become the second female jockey, again after Turner, who rode exactly 100 winners in 2008, to reach a century in a single season.

In 2018, notwithstanding breaking a bone in her left hand in a stalls incident at Ayr in late June, which kept her put of action for nearly a month, her seasonal tally dropped to 56 winners and the following February Gordon left Palmer to go freelance. She has not hit the same heights since, but has over 400 winners to her name, including eight Listed and two Group race winners. Her biggest single payday, though, came during her record-breaking season in 2017, when she won the Victoria Cup at Ascot on Fastnet Tempest, trained by William Haggas.