What happened to Brian Toomey?

For readers unfamiliar with the name, Brian Toomey is a former National Hunt jockey, who finally retired from the saddle on June 14, 2016, but has recently made headlines by passing the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) required to be granted a training licence. Toomey rode 49 winners under National Hunt Rules in Britain, but his story is all the more remarkable for the fact that, on July 4, 2013, he was pronounced clinically dead for six seconds and, at one point, was given just a 3% chance of survival. On that day, his mount, Solway Dandy, fell heavily at the third-last flight in a conditional jockeys’ handicap at Perth and Toomey suffered a horrific head injury, which caused him to lose consciousness.

Thankfully, the promising young jockey was resuscitated by paramedics, but his injuries were so severe that he could not be airlifted from the racecourse. All told, Toomey spent 157 days in hospital, the first two weeks in an induced coma, and required surgery to remove part of his skull to reduce the swelling on his brain. Miraculously, against all odds, he regained his licence 704 days later and briefly resumed his riding career, although he later reflected that ‘ trainers and owners were just a bit too worried to give me an opportunity’.

Fast forward a decade or so from that fateful day in the Scottish Lowlands and Toomey, 34, is preparing to train, under a dual-purpose licence, in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire. He told the ‘Racing Post’, ‘I got in touch with [recently retired trainer] Martin [Bosley], who invited me to look at the yard. When I did, I was blown away. It’s something special.’ He added, ‘I know it’s going to be very tough, but I’m also very determined. I just hope I haven’t used up all my luck.’

Who is Jack Berry?

In recent years, Jack Berry, 86, is probably best known for his indefatigable fundraising work in aid of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund, of which he is Vice President. Indeed, Berry was co-founder of the specialist independent charity, which provides financial and medical support to jockeys, past and present, way back in 1964. At that stage, he was, himself, an oft-injured journeyman National Hunt jockey but, following his retirement from the saddle in 1969, later established Moss Side Stables in Cockerham, near Morecambe, Lancashire, where he would make his name as a trainer.

Instantly recognisable on the racecourse in his customary red shirt, Berry regularly saddled 100 winners a season in the nineties, including five years in a row between 1990 and 1994 and, according to the ‘Racing Post’, achieved his highest seasonal tally, 140, in 1991. Nevertheless, after achieving his fifth consecutive century, Berry told the ‘Independent’, ‘I’m not particularly bothered about beating my best. If I can keep knocking in 100 every year, I’ll be happy. It takes a bit of doing and there are always a few heartaches and traumas along the way.’

Berry developed a reputation as a trainer of speedy two-year-olds and older sprinters. Among his stable stars down the years were So Careful, who won the Ayr Gold Cup in 1988, Paris House, who won the Flying Childers Stakes in 1991 and the Temple Stakes in 1993 and Mind Games, who won back-to-back renewals of the Temple Stakes in 1995 and 1996. He was awarded an MBE in the Birthday Honours List and, since his retirement from the training ranks at the end of the 1999 Flat season, has continued to pioneer for the Injured Jockeys’ Fund. In fact, the construction of two of the three rehabilitation and fitness centres currently run by the Fund, namely Oaksey House in Lambourn an Jack Berry House in Malton, was largely due to his foresight.

Where, and when, did Saffron ‘Saffie’ Osborne ride her first winner on the Flat?

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Saffron ‘Saffie’ Osborne is, of course, the daughter of National Hunt jockey-turned-trainer Jamie Osborne and, in recent seasons, has found fame as the ‘Queen of the Racing League’. On September 15, 2022, she rode a 6,539/1 treble in the final round of the six-week series, sponsored by William Hill, to win the £20,000 leading jockey award. At that point, she said, ‘I’d never even ridden a treble before, so to get a £20,000 bonus on top of it is quite nice.’

Two months later, on November 16, 2022, Osborne rode out her remaining 3lb claim, courtesy of the two-year-old Monopolise, trained by Ed Walker, in a nursery handicap at Kempton. In her first season as a fully-fledged professional, she picked up where she left off when the Racing League kicked off again at Yarmouth on July 27, 2023, partnering winners Chinese Knot (11/2), Stone Circle (17/2) and Alnilam (9/4) for another 200/1 treble. Just over two weeks later, she also played a starring role, alongside Hollie Doyle and Hayley Turner, in the winning ‘Girls’ team on Shergar Cup Day at Ascot on his first appearance in the event.

Saffie Osborne rode her first winner on the Flat, the two-year-old Hot Scoop, trained by her father, in a novice stakes race, over six furlongs, at Windsor on July 27, 2020. The following October, she was hospitalised have suffered multiple injuries, including a broken arm and ribs, in a fall at the same course. However, having ridden nine winners in her first season, she increased her seasonal tally to 40 in 2021, finishing second behind Marco Ghiani in the apprentices’ championship, and again, to 46, in 2022. A knee injury the following year didn’t slow her down for long as she won the Lord Glitters Handicap on 16th February 2024, becaming the first female jockey to win a race at Meydan Racecourse.

Which jockey won most prize money during the 2023 Flat Jockeys’ Championship?

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Of course, the Flat Jockeys’ Championship is decided on the total number of winners ridden, not the total amount of prize money accrued, during the ‘season’. Until 2015, winners ridden during the whole of the traditional Flat racing season on turf, between late March or early April and early November, counted towards the jockeys’ title, regardless of whether they were achieved on turf or all-weather surfaces. However, increasingly worried by the punishing schedule faced by Flat jockeys, particularly those in pursuit of the title, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) effectively shortened the season by approximately eight weeks.

Nowadays, the Flat Jockeys’ Championship is decided over the period between the Guineas Festival at Newmarket in early May and British Champions’ Day at Ascot in October, when the trophy is presented to the winning jockey. Indeed, on October 21, 2023, William Buick was crowned Champion Jockey for the second year running, having ridden 135 winners from 616 rides, at a strike rate of 22%. Buick, 35, was Champion Apprentice, alongside David Probert, as long ago as 2008, but has been retained by Goldolphin, under the auspices of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, since January, 2015 and is currently first jockey to Charlie Appleby at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket.

It would be fair to say that Buick won his second jockeys’ title fairly comfortably, with Oisin Murphy (106), Rossa Ryan (104) and Tom Marquand (102) the only other jockeys to reach three figures during the championship period. However, in terms of prize money, his seasonal tally of £3.8 million was some way behind the £4 million and £4.4 million accrued by Marquand and Murphy respectively and even further behind the £5.8 million racked up by Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori in his ‘farewell’ season on British soil. Top of the heap, through, was Ryan Moore, who rode 46 winners, but accumulated an astonishing £7.4 million in total prize money.