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.
