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Many consider Ireland to be the home of horse racing. The country has certainly turned out some of the most amazing jockeys over the years, making Ireland one to watch when it comes to the sport. Even in the past decade, there have been some incredible jockeys that made incredible achievements in racing. Here are some of the most successful Irish jockeys of the past decade.

Mark Walsh

Mark Walsh is a jockey who primarily competes in national hunt racing. He has racked up many wins during his career, with his first win on Shrug at Punchestown in September 2002. He typically rides for owner J. P. McManus, and has claimed major wins for him in the World Series Hurdle, the Irish Gold Cup, and the Espoir d’Allen in the Champion Hurdle.

He saw particular success last year, riding on 33-1 winner Sire Du Berlais at the Cheltenham Festival. With so many wins under his belt, he certainly is some of the toughest competition in any race he competes in.

Jack Kennedy

Jack Kennedy has quickly become one of the top Irish jockeys in the game today. In the 2023 / 2024 National Hunt season, he was named as Champion Jockey.

This was a close call during the competition, as he was competing against some of the best Irish jockeys around right now. However, he did manage to pull it out of the bag and earn his title. This was his very first jockey’s championship success, and is the culmination of 12 months of hard work and some great wins in the sport.

Right now, he has ridden over 100 winners in a season, such as Irish Point, Gerri Colombe, and Found A Fifty. An injury did threatened take him out of the competition last year, at the Cheltenham Festival. However, with excellent care he was able to get back to racing. With 123 wins under his belt at time of writing, he is very clearly one to watch in the horse racing scene.

Paul Townend

Paul Townend was one of Kennedy’s biggest competitors this year, and seen a lot of success of his own. He was fierce competition, having taken the leading jockey’s prize in 2023, 2022, and 2020 at the Cheltenham Festival. Because of this, he was the odds on favourite to land the trophy again this year according to the popular Irish racing bookmakers. Before the competition, bookies were offering odds 2-5 on him to win.

He is a rider in Irish champion trainer’s Willie Mullins’ stable. After the retirement of Ruby Walsh, he became the top jockey in stable, giving him the pick of the horses there. He began his career with the stable as an apprentice flat racing jockey. He soon started racking up the wins, with July 2018 his first win in the Galway Hurdle.

Jody Townend

Younger sister of Paul Townend, Jody Townend is shaping up to be a top level jockey in her own right. She is also partnered with Willie Mullins’ stable, and has many successes in recent races under her belt already. He claimed her first victory in 2015 when she was just 17, when she rode a winner in a point to point at Grennan.

She has since gone on to claim multiple wins in amateur categories, such as at the Connacht Hotel Amateur Riders’ Handicap with Great White Shark in 2019. When it was especially notable as she had suffered injury in a schooling fall in October of the previous year, with this race only being her fourth ride back.

It’s clear she is going to go on to even greater and better things, so she is a jockey that Irish racing fans need to be watching.

Rachael Blackmore

Rachael Blackmore is a record setting jockey who is one to watch in the racing scene. Growing up on a farm in Tipperary, she first started riding ponies when she was just two years old. Riding was part of her life through our whole childhood, and she took part in hunting, pony racing, coney club meets, and more. She even has a degree in equine science from the University of Limerick.

Blackmore started her career as an amateur jockey, getting her first win in 2011 on Stowaway Pearl, when she won the Tipperary Ladies’ Handicap. She turned professional in 2015, and has broken several records since. For example, she became the first female jockey to win the Grand National in 2021 as well as the first woman to be the leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival with six victories at the Cheltenham Festival in the same year. She also became the first female jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2022.

Keith Donoghue

Keith Donoghue secured his first win as a jockey in 2009, when he took part in his fourth ever race at the Kerry Spring Water Hurdle at Listowel in September 2009. Since then, he has wrapped up over 150 wins during his career, making him a formidable opponent.

He has partnered with several trainers, and claim some of his most notable successes under Gordon Elliott. For example, he rode on Elliott-trained horse Tiger Roll at the Cheltenham Festival in 2018. in 2021 he wrote the same horse and broke records by being the third only horse to win five or races at the festival.

That’s not the only when he has had, as he has gained several Grade 1 wins, with the first one being at the inaugural Matchbook Betting Exchange Novice Chase at Limerick in 2018. This was followed up with a second win at the Ladbrokes Champions Chase in 2020. At the end of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, he now has five festival winners to his name after he won the Mares’ Chase.

These are just a selection of some of the most successful Irish jockeys of the past decade. You can see just how much talent is up and coming, so you can certainly look forward to some exciting races in the near future with these competitors.

Described by Harper’s Bazaar as a ‘British High-Society Must’, Royal Ascot is not only one of the most prestigious race meetings in the world, but also a revered social event. Full of pomp and circumstance, not least because a daily royal presence, the five-day spectacle at the Berkshire course welcomes over 300,000 visitors from all over the world.

Racing-wise, the Royal Meeting features a total of 35 races over the five days, including no fewer than eight at the highest Group 1 level. The ‘highlight of highlights’, if you like, is the historic Gold Cup, established in 1807 and run over a stamina-sapping two and a half miles on the third day of Royal Ascot, a.k.a. ‘Ladies’ Day’. The most successful jockey in the history of the flagship race of the meeting remains the legendary Lester Piggott, who has 11 wins to his name.

Of course, it is no coincidence that the ‘Long Fellow’, as Piggott was affectionately known, is the most successful jockey in the history of Royal Ascot, as a whole, having ridden a total of 116 winners during his long, illustrious career. Second on the all-time list, albeit a respectful 35 winners behind Piggott, comes Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori. Dettori supposedly ‘finished’ his Royal Ascot career in 2023, with 81 winners to his name, but having opted to continue his riding career in the United States, rather than retiring, he may yet add to his career total. He will not, however, be riding at the Royal Meeting 2024.

One jockey who definitely will, though, is Ryan Moore, who has become something of a ‘standing dish’ at Royal Ascot, as far as the leading jockey title is concerned, over the last decade and a half. Indeed, Moore has won said title 10 times in the last 14 years, including with a post-war record total of nine winners in 2015, and as stable jockey to the indomitable Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, Co. Tipperary, the former three-time Champion Jockey seems likely to have plenty more opportunities to add to his career total of 78 winners.

In the absence of Dettori, the only other current jockey to have won the leading jockey title at Royal Ascot is Oisin Murphy, who did so in 2021 with five winners. Also three-time Champion Jockey, Murphy clearly commands respect, but the 16/1 currently offered by William Hill, against 2/5 favourite, is probably an accurate reflection of his chance of winning a second title. That price also brings in Tom Marquand, so, with reigning Champion Jockey William Buick only third-best in the earlly market, at 8/1, James Doyle may emerge as the most potent challenger to Moore.

Formerly retained by Godolphin, latterly as second-choice jockey, behind Buick, to Charlie Appleby at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket, Doyle quit his position to join Wathnan Racing, under the auspices of the Emir of the State of Qatar, in October 2023. Whether the 7/2 currently on offer for the leading jockey title represents value or not remains to be seen, but Doyle is another who should have plenty of ammunition for the Royal Meeting.

At the time of his retirement, on April 9, 1985, John Francome was the most successful National Hunt jockey in British history. His career total of 1,138 winners has, of course, since been eclipsed by Sir Anthony McCoy and many others, but, at the time, beat the previous record, 1,035 winners, set by Stan Mellor, who retired from the saddle at the end of 1971/72 season. Indeed, Francome had held the record since winning on Don’t Touch at Fontwell the previous May, at which point he said, ‘I dare say Peter Scudamore or someone else will do me, but it is nice to hold the record, even if it is for just a couple of years’. Many punters on the look out for UK free bets will have appreciated Francome’s winning performances over the years.

 

By that stage of his career, Francome was already contemplating retirement and informed his principal employer, Fred Winter – whom he had joined, as a conditional jockey, in 1969 – that the 1984/85 National Hunt season would be his last. Francome had his last ride on The Reject, trained by Winter, at Chepstow and, having parted company with his mount at an open ditch, found himself in a potentially life-threatening position, with his foot trapped in a stirrup iron by a twisted stirrup leather. He later explained his split-second decision to retire, with immediate effect, saying, ‘Luckily, I grabbed the reins before he [The Reject] could go anywhere, otherwise it would have been good night. I quit there and then.’

 

All told, Francome won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship seven times, in 1975/1976, 1978/79 five years running between 1980/81 and 1984/85. In 1981/82, he famously shared the title with the aforementioned Peter Scudamore, having stopped riding once he drew level with his injured rival. His notable winners included Midnight Court in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1978, Sea Pigeon in the Champion Hurdle in 1982 and Wayward Lad and Burrough Hill Lad, both in the King George VI Chase, in 1982 and 1984 respectively.

The 2024 Belmont Stakes is shaping up to be an exciting race, with the winners of both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes competing. Mystik Dan, who won the Derby, will participate in all three Triple Crown races, the first horse to do so since 2020. Seize The Grey, the Preakness winner, meanwhile, will aim for another victory in a Triple Crown race.

The Belmont Stakes will feature a total of ten horses, including Derby runner-up Sierra Leone and three others that also ran at Churchill Downs.

Belmont Stakes Info

The 2024 Belmont Stakes is scheduled for Saturday, June 8. The race is projected to start at 6:41 p.m. ET.

You can catch all the action live on Fox, or if you prefer to stream, it’s available on FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app.

Field with Post Positions

1. Seize The Grey: Winner of the 2024 Preakness Stakes, eyeing another win.

2. Resilience: Finished 6th in the Kentucky Derby, aiming for a comeback.

3. Mystik Dan: Won the Kentucky Derby and finished 2nd in the Preakness Stakes.

4. The Wine Steward: Finished 2nd in the 2024 Peter Pan Stakes, poised for a strong performance.

5. Antiquarian: Won the 2024 Peter Pan Stakes and is a contender to watch.

6. Dornoch: Finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby, hoping for a better result.

7. Protective: Finished 3rd in the 2024 Peter Pan Stakes and aims to impress.

8. Honor Marie: Placed 8th in the Kentucky Derby, seeking redemption.

9. Sierra Leone: Runner-up in the Kentucky Derby, favored to win the Belmont.

10. Mindframe: Winner of a Churchill Downs allowance race earlier this year, currently the second favorite behind Sierra Leone.

Preview

As we approach the 2024 Belmont Stakes, three horses are generating the most buzz: Mystik Dan, Seize The Grey, and Sierra Leone. Mystik Dan shocked many by winning the Kentucky Derby against steep odds and then securing a solid second-place finish at the Preakness Stakes.

Seize The Grey managed to best Mystik Dan at the Preakness and is well-positioned to repeat that success at Belmont potentially. On the other hand, Sierra Leone has been a consistent performer, starting the Triple Crown season alongside Fierceness as the favorite and maintaining a streak of first-or-second-place finishes.

While Mystik Dan, Seize The Grey, and Sierra Leone are the headliners, there are other notable contenders. Resilience, Dornoch, and Honor Marie, who also participated in the Derby, are looking to improve upon their previous performances.

Antiquarian, The Wine Steward, and Protective completed the Peter Pan Stakes in early May and are looking to follow in the footsteps of Arcangelo, the 2023 Belmont winner who used the Peter Pan as a springboard to success.

Additionally, Mindframe offers a wildcard element to the race despite lacking extensive racing experience, thanks to the expertise of his trainer, Todd Pletcher, and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.

Fans excited about the race can not only enjoy the live broadcast on Fox but also consider online betting to enhance their engagement with this thrilling event.

The Takeaway

The 2024 Belmont Stakes promises to be a thrilling event. With top horses like Mystik Dan, Seize The Grey, and Sierra Leone in the running, the competition is fierce. Fans can tune in to Fox or Fox Sports online for live coverage.

The confirmed field of ten horses ensures an exciting race. Whether you’re a seasoned racing fan or a casual viewer, the Belmont Stakes is one event you won’t want to miss.