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The leading jockey award at the Cheltenham Festival is a prize every National Hunt jockey in the sport dreams of winning. It is a sign that it has been a great week for the respective rider at the prestigious meeting.

Irish jockey Paul Townend has won the award four times, including at each of the last three renewals of the meeting. With a strong book of rides, he will be fancied to defend his title once again.

Galopin Des Champs: The Horse Townend Will Be Most Excited About

🟡🟤 Galopin Des Champs exacts revenge on Fact To File at @LeopardstownRC in brilliant style!

🏇 21 runs
🥇 13 wins
🏆🏆 Savills Chase
🏆🏆 Cheltenham Gold Cup
🏆🏆 Irish Gold Cup
🏆 John Durkan Memorial
👑 10 G1 victories
⭐️ Superstar pic.twitter.com/nuVjAnASar

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) December 28, 2024

Champion Jockey, Townend, has good rides on each of the four days of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, but it is Galopin Des Champs in the Cheltenham Gold Cup that will likely excite him the most. The defending champion is 8/15 in the Cheltenham betting to prevail in the Blue Riband event for the third straight year.

Townend is 2/5 in the bet on horse racing market for the top jockey award at the Cheltenham Festival. Galopin Des Champs will give the Irishman a great chance of ending the week on a high on day four.

As the retained jockey for Champion Trainer, Willie Mullins, Townend also has some exciting rides on day one. Kopek Des Bordes is a warm favourite to win the opening race of the meeting, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. He will also get to choose between Lossiemouth and State Man in the Champion Hurdle, the premier hurdles race.

Townend has now won 34 Cheltenham Festival races in his career, including 10 wins in the championship races. He will be confident of adding to his tally this year at the Gloucestershire racecourse.

Mark Walsh: The Biggest Challenger to Townend

Irishman, Mark Walsh, is set to ride the pick of JP McManus’ horses at the Cheltenham Festival this year. That will include Fact To File in the Ryanair Chase, his most likely target ahead of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Majborough pulls away to clinch Grade One @Goffs1866 Irish Arkle victory 🏆@WillieMullinsNH | #DublinRacingFestivalpic.twitter.com/oqXrSpu7mT

— Leopardstown RC (@LeopardstownRC) February 1, 2025

Majborough will give Walsh a great chance of making a great start to the meeting, as he is the odds-on favourite for the Arkle Trophy, the second race of the week. The Irishman rode the horse to victory in the Irish Arkle at Leopardstown on his most recent appearance.

Walsh is set to pick up some great rides for the handicap races across the four days. McLaurey is one of those horses. He is expected to be a strong contender for the County Hurdle on day four of the meeting.

Nico de Boinville: The Leading British Rider at The Meeting

British jockey Nico de Boinville has the best chance of the home-based riders in the race for the top jockey award this year. With Constitution Hill now back to his best following his triumph in the Christmas Hurdle, he is the one to beat in the Champion Hurdle, with de Boinville set to be on board.

Nicky Henderson’s retained rider also has Jonbon and Lallana in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Triumph Hurdle respectively. It looks set to be a more prosperous week for the pair than they had in 2024.

The leading jockey award at the 2025 Cheltenham Festival is set to be handed out after the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.

Formerly assistant trainer to the late Peter Walwyn at Windsor House Stables in Lambourn, Berkshire, Ralph Beckett took over the licence in 1999 and saddled his first winner in his own right, Order, at Huntingdon on January 27, 2000. He subsequently moved to Whitsbury Manor Stables, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire in 2006 and, again, to his current state-of-the-art yard, Kimpton Down Stables, near Andover in late 2010.

In his early career, Beckett justifiably earned a unsought and not altogether wanted reputation as a trainer of fillies. His first top-class horse was the Pivotal filly Penkenna Princess, who won the Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury on her three-year-old debut in 2005 and, two starts later, came within a whisker of becoming his first Group 1 winner when touched off by a short head in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.

Following the move to Whitsbury, that first Group 1 winner duly arrived in the form of Look Here in the Oaks at Epsom in 2008. In 2013, Beckett saddled Talent to win the same race and, in 2015, Simple Verse to win the St. Leger at Doncaster and the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot. Indeed, Beckett had to wait until October 3, 2021, when Angel Bleu won the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp, to saddle a colt to a Group 1 success. Angel Bleu followed up in the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud three weeks later for back-to-back Group 1 victories and the following June Beckett saddled Westover to an impressive, seven-length win in the Irish Derby at the Curragh.

Most jockeys are self-employed and, as such, rely on riding fees and a percentage of any prize-money won by their mounts for their income. Riding fees and prize-money are a matter of public record, but details of contracts, or ‘retainers’, to ride for individual owners or trainers are not. Thus, the exact earnings of some of the leading jockeys in the world remain a closely guarded secret.

It is also worth noting that Japan is, far and away, the biggest and most lucrative jurisdiction in the world, so it should come as no surprise that most of the highest-earning jockeys in history are hardly household names outside their native country.

According to the latest ‘Jockey Rich List’, published by the in-house editorial team at the trusted OLBG sports betting website, the highest-earning jockey in history is Yutaka Take, whose 4,495 wins, at the time of publication, had yielded $950 million in prize money. A legend in his homeland, Take has a host of Group 1 and Grade 1 winners to his name, worldwide, including Agnes World, trained by Hideyuki Mori, in the July Cup at Newmarket in 2001.

The next three positions on the all-time list are also occupied by Japanese jockeys, namely, Norihiro Yokoyama, Yuichi Fukunaga and Masayoshi Ebina; the latter is probably best remembered for his association with the prolific El Condor Pasa in the late nineties. The first non-Japanese name on the list is that of Puerta Rican John R. Velazquez, who has plied in his trade in the United States for the last three and a half decades and has six Triple Crown victories to his name.

Obviously, the maximum and minimum weights carried by racehorses varies from one racing jurisdiction to another and also depends, in part, on the discipline in which horses compete. In Britain, horse racing is divided into National Hunt racing, in which horses jump obstacles, and Flat racing, in which horses have no obstacles to negotiate. In National Hunt racing, horses carry a maximum weight of 12st and a minimum weight of 10st 2lb, subject to any weight allowances for inexperienced jockeys, and on the Flat they carry a maximum weight of 10st 2lb and a minimum weight of 8st 2lb, again subject to allowances.

Regardless of the actual numbers involved, all professional jockeys must maintain a certain body weight for races and, historically, have been known to resort to dubious rapid weight-loss techniques, such as self-induced vomiting and taking diuretics, or ‘water’ pills, to do so. Struggles with the scales are nothing new, but in recent years the Professional Jockeys’ Association (PJA) and the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) have adopted a more proactive approach to promoting healthy weight loss among jockeys.

Of course, neither National Hunt nor Flat racing impose height restrictions, but the fact remains that taller jockeys struggle to make the weight requirements. Thus, National Hunt jockeys stand around 5’8″ tall, on average, and weigh in at around 10st 3lb, while their Flat counterparts stand around 5’2″ tall, on average, and weight in at around 8st 11lb. Of course, there are always exceptions; Lester Piggott and Sir Anthony McCoy maintained average riding weights of 8st 5lb and 10st 10lb, respectively, despite both being 5’10” tall.

Such outstanding sporting dedication deserves recognition and encouragement from the Professional Jockeys’ Association (PJA) and the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), and Custom Medals For Awards are the perfect way to celebrate these sporting achievements in a tangible way.

Ideal for race organisers, these custom medals can be tailored to specific race details, race events or iconic race-themed images, creating a timeless keepsake that celebrates both the physical demands and the competitive spirit of the sport.

Just like the precision required to maintain riding weight, custom medals are meticulously crafted to match the significance of each victory, providing winners with a tangible representation of their hard-earned success.