Known for his determined riding style, Graham Thorner was Champion National Hunt Jockey just once, in 1970/71, when he interrupted the winning sequence of Bob Davies, who won the title jointly, with Terry Biddlecombe, in 1968/69 and on his own in 1969/70 and 1971/72. Thorner spent the whole of his riding career with Tim Forster, having joined the ‘Captain’ straight from school, as a 15-year-old, in 1964.

He rode his first winner, Longway, at Newton Abbott in 1966, turned professional the following season and at the time of his retirement, in 1979, had amassed a total of 650 career winners. Thorner and Forster enjoyed a fruitful association at Old Manor House Stables in Letcombe Bassett, near Wantage, Oxfordshire, with numerous high-profile winners, including Mocharabuice in the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup in 1972, Denys Adventure in the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 1973 and, away from the Cheltenham Festival, Royal Marshall II in the Hennessy Gold Cup in 1974.

Their highest-profile winner of all, though, was Well To Do in the 1972 Grand National. Saddled with just 10st 1lb in the world famous steeplechase and therefore in receipt of 27lb from the favourite, L’Escargot, Well To Do was the subject of a gamble, from 33/1 to 14/1, the day before. He duly obliged, coming with a well-timed run to beat the 1970 winner Gay Trip by two lengths.

Not to be confused with his countryman, and contemporary, Robert Arthur Davies, who also commonly known as ‘Bob’, Robert Bertram Davies has the distinction of being the last Welshman to win the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship. In fact, Davies first achieved that feat, at least jointly, in 1968/69, when he shared the title with Terry Biddlecombe. He defended his title, winning outright in 1969/70 and did so again in 1971/72 for his third championship in total.

Born on May 14, 1946, Davies rode his first winner, Ellen’s Pleasure, at Newton Abbott in 1966, while still an amateur and in a long, illustrious career added another 911 to his career total. Probably the most famous of them all, though, was Lucius, trained by Gordon W. Richards, whom Davies rode to victory in an eventful renewal of the Grand National in 1978. That victory was all the more remarkable for the fact that, with stable jockey David Goulding sidelined with injury and Ron Barry declining the ride because of previous commitments, Davies effectively picked up a ‘spare’ ride on his way to Aintree immortality. Not that Lucius, a 14/1 chance, was unfancied for the National, but Davies had to be at his strongest to hold off his nearest pursuers, Sebastian V and Drumroan, by half a length and a neck.

Bryony Frost is, of course, the daughter of Grand National-winning jockey Jimmy Frost and has made a habit of making her own headlines since riding her first winner under Rules, Current Event, trained by Rose Loxton, in a hunters’ chase at Musselburgh on February 1, 2015. Two years later she turned professional and, on March 14, 2019, won the Ryanair Chase on Frodon, trained by Paul Nicholls, thereby becoming the first female jockey to ride a Grade 1 winner, over hurdles or fences, at the Chelteham Festival. On December 26, 2020, she won the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on the same horse, therby becoming the first feamle jockey to win that race, too.

Champion conditional jockey in 2018/19, Frost rode 50 winners from 307 rides that campaign and amassed £988,839 in total prize money, making it the most successful, numerically and financially, so far. More recently, her riding career has been interrupted by a high-profile disciplinary case, which eventually saw fellow jockey Robbie Dunne banned for ten months for bullying and intimidation and a serious back injury sustained in a fall at Aintree in April 2022, which kept her sidelined for six months. The 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons yielded just 29 and 26 winners, from 177 and 183 rides, respectively, and her last Graded winner was Knappers Hill in the Grade 2 Select Hurdle at Sandown Park in April 2023.

Born in Nottingham on January 3, Hayley Turner has blazed a trail for female jockeys more or less ever since riding her first winner, Generate, in a lowly Class F apprentice series handicap at Pontefract on June 4, 2000. Joint champion apprentice, alongside Saleem Golam, in 2005, she rode out her claim later in that campaign and, in 2008, became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year, courtesy of Mullitovermaurice in a claiming stakes race at Wolverhampton on December 30 that year.

On July 9, 2011, Turner won the July Cup at Newmarket on Dream Ahead, trained by David Simcock, thereby becoming the first female jockey in history to win a Group 1 race outright. She retired from race-riding in 2015 and joined ITV Racing in 2017, but was back in the saddle in 2008. Indeed, Turner made history again when, on November 21, 2023, she reached the milestone of 1,000 winners – making her the first British female jockey to do so – on Tradesman, also trained by Simcock, in a handicap at Chelmsford. Aside from Dream Ahead, she also has a further two Group 1 or Grade 1 wins to her name, and half a dozen Group wins in total.