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By way of testament to the perils of National Hunt racing, at the time of writing, pioneering jockey Rachael Blackmore is sidelined as she undergoes rehabilitation for a neck injury sustained at Downpatrick on September 20, 2024. She will, of course, be forever immortalised in Grand National history after becoming the first female jockey to win the iconic steeplechase on Minella Times in 2021, but she is anything but a one-trick pony. Indeed, at the time of her injury she jointly led the Irish jump jockeys’ championship, with 23 winners from 131 rides at a strike rate of 18%.

Blackmore, 35, did not ride her first Cheltenham Festival winners – A Plus Tard in the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase and Minella Indo in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle – until 2019, but Prestbury Park has since proved a happy hunting ground. In 2020, she won the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle on Honeysuckle and a year later had the distinction of becoming the first woman to win the Ruby Walsh Trophy, awarded to the leading rider at the Festival, courtesy of six winners, including Honeysuckle, again, in the Champion Hurdle.

Lo and behold, in 2022, Blackmore completed the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double, on Honeysuckle and A Plus Tard, and in so doing became the first female jockey to win the ‘Blue Riband’ of steeplechasing. She has since added four more winners to her Cheltenham Festival tally, including Envoi Allen in the Ryanair Chase in 2023 and Captain Guinness in the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2024, for a total of 16 altogether.

To anyone with even a passing interest in horse racing, Lanfranco “Frankie” Dettori requires little or no introduction. Born in Milan, Italy, on 15 December 1970, Dettori rode his first winner on British soil, Lizzy Hare, trained by compatriot Luca Cumani, at Goodwood on June 7, 1987, as a 16-year-old apprentice and the rest, as they say, is history.

In a ridng career spanning four decades in Britain, Dettori became champion apprentice in 1989, champion jockey three times, in 1994, 1995 and 2004 and, of course, achieved his unforgettable ‘Magnificent Seven’ when going through the seven-race at Ascot on British Festival of Racing Day in 1996. Having ridden hundreds of winners at the highest level, in just about every racing jurisdiction round the world, including 21 British Classic winners, Dettori embarked on a “farewell tour”.

However, having increased his British Classic tally, courtesy of Chaldean in the 2,000 Guineas and Soul Sister in the Oaks, Dettori decided not to retire after all, but rather to continue his career in the United States. In North America, Grade 1 races are those of the highest calibre, such as the Kentucky Derby, which must carry minimum prize money of $300,000. Following his arrival in California in December 2023, Dettori more or less carried on where he had left off in Britain. Most recently, he has added the Santa Anita Handicap and the Jenny Wiley Stakes, at Keeneland, to his Grade 1 tally Stateside, making 18 winners in all, dating back to 1999.

The short answer is no, he didn’t, but it’s also fair to say that victory in the Longchamp showpiece was he one glaring omission from the CV of Kentucky-born Cauthen. His best chance, at least in theory, came in 1987 aboard Reference Point, trained by Henry (later Sir Henry), on whom he had already won the Derby, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the St. Leger. Odds-on at Longchamp, Reference Point attempted to make all, as was customary, but weakened quickly once the race began in earnest and was later found to be suffering from a foot abscess.

Back in Britain, Steve Cauthen won the Flat Jockeys’ Championship for the third time that year, no mean feat considering he was a direct contemporary of Lester Piggott, Pat Eddery and Willie Carson, who won 27 jockeys’ titles between them. Dubbed “The Six Million Dollar Man” on home soil after riding 487 winners and amassing over $6 million in prize money in 1977, Cauthen won the American Triple Crown on Affirmed in 1978, making him the youngest jockey to do so.

Alongside Cecil, for whom he rode nine of his ten British Classic winners – including the Fillies’ Triple Crown on Oh So Sharp, and the Derby on Slip Anchor, in 1985 – he became a force majeure on the opposite side of the Atlantic in the second half of the eighties. Cauthen retired relatively early, aged 32, in 1993, but remains the only jockey ever to ridden the winner of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and the Derby at Epsom.

At the time of his enforced retirement, aged 50, on August 10, 1954, Sir Gordon Richards had ridden 4,870 winners, which was, at the time, a world record. The first jockey ever to be knighted, Richards won the jockeys’ title 26 times between 1925 and 1953 and, in 1947, rode 269 winners, thereby setting a British single-season record, which would stand until 2002, when beaten by the equally indomitable Sir Anthony McCoy.

‘Moppy’, as Richards was popularly known, was a force majeure in British Flat racing for most of his 34-year career in the saddle, but his reign as Champion Jockey was interrupted three times. In his first year as a fully-fledged professional, 1925, Richards rode 118 winners to take his first title but, the following year, contracted tuberculosis and was sidelined for most of the season. In his absence, Thomas ‘Tommy’ Weston, retained rider Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby, became Champion Jockey for the one and only time with 95 winners.

Having recuperated, Richards returned to winning ways, taking the jockeys’ title again in 1927, 1928 and 1929. However, in 1930, following a ding-dong battle with Frederick ‘Freddie’ Fox, narrowly missed out on his fifth title, 129 winners to 128, on the final day of the season. Undeterred, Richards was Champion Jockey for the next ten seasons running and may have remained so until the end of his career, but for breaking his leg six weeks into the 1941 Flat season. Another enforced absence allowed veteran Harry Wragg, a.k.a. ‘The Head Waiter’, to finally emerged from his shadow and take his one and only title with 71 winners. Once again, Richards resumed where he had left off, winning another dozen titles in a row before retiring.