GREAT BRITAIN: Oisin Murphy crowned for 4e times
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Already crowned Champion jockey in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Irishman Oisin Murphy returns to the top of the hierarchy in Great Britain. During a competition which took place from May 4 to October 19 – from the 2000 Guineas to the Champions Stakes – Murphy won 163 races in 754 outings, notably winning the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes with Khaadem and in the King Charles III Stakes with Asfora during the Royal Ascot meeting. He finished the season with a comfortable lead over his first runner-up and compatriot Rossa Ryan (110 victories). The latter, however, won the other annual competition across the Channel, the championship on all-weather tracks, which takes place during the winter period.
At 32, Oisin Murphy, suspended for 14 months between 2022 and 2023, is making a spectacular comeback.
SPAIN: At 39, Vaclav Janacek scores a 10e Golden whip
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An almost banal season for the Czech Vaclav Janacek, crowned again in his adopted country for the 10e times. No record this time, unlike the previous year which saw him beat the record of 80 victories held since 1978 by Claudio Carudel, bringing it to 83 successes, but the satisfaction of having crossed the threshold of 1,500 victories since the start of his career. Crowned 10 times in Spain, 5 times in the Czech Republic and 1 time in Slovakia, Vaclav Janacek, who recalls having won in a dozen countries since his debut, has one of the most successful records in European galloping.
GERMANY: Thore Hammer-Hansen, victorious return to his native country
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Born in 1999 in Cologne, where his father Lennart finished his career as a jockey, Thore Hammer-Hansen grew up in Denmark, where he is a national. After an internship with André Fabre, he headed to England in 2017 to try to break into as a jockey. He will experience some success there but, determined to ride better horses, he responds positively to Eckhart Sauren's proposal to become the first jockey for his team, at the end of the 2023 season. A decision to return to Germany that this young man of 1.75 meters must not regret today. With 73 victories, he is at the top of the list of jockeys at the end of his first season ahead of Bauyrzhan Murzabayev (who, however, was unable to fight to the end due to an injury). Winner of the German Derby (Gr. 1) with Palladium and the Bavarian Prize on Assistant, Thore Hammer-Hansen was also able to realize his dream of riding top horses. We understand that he considers that “2024 will be difficult to match” Today.
ITALY: Dario Di Tocco supported the pressure
Unexpected winner of the Italian Golden Whip in 2023 ahead of legend Dario Vargiu, Dario Di Tocco thought he would experience a more difficult 2024 season. “This time, all eyes are on me and the coaches, like the owners, expect me to maintain my level of performance, he announced at the dawn of a new year of competition. I feel a lot of pressure.” This pressure must have stimulated the 26-year-old Pisa native who improved his 2023 score by one unit to establish it at 187 victories (22% success) and leave Dario Vargiu far behind him (142 victories). The Sardinian will try to recover his property in 2025 but also to get closer to the victory record of Gianfranco Dettori (Frankie's father) with 3,797 winners. Vargiu, 48, who currently has 3,617 victories, is the third jockey in a ranking dominated by Enrico Camici and his 4,081 victories.
IRELAND: Colin Keane for the sixth time
At 30, Colin Keane picks up for 6e times the title of Champion jockey in Ireland. Like the French Golden Crop, Maxime Guyon, the Irishman has shown extraordinary consistency since his beginnings. Best apprentice (Etrier d'Or) in 2014, he took his place on the podium at the end of the season in his first year as a professional jockey and never came down from there again. In terms of victories, 2024 will not have been the best vintage for the man who has been at the top of the jockey rankings without interruption since 2020 (after being crowned for the first time in 2017). With 103 successes – and 8 ahead of his runner-up Billy Lee – he still does better than in 2023 and 2022, but does not approach his record of 2021 where he won 141 times. 2024 will, however, remain an excellent vintage with four Group I victories, including a memorable triumph at Del Mar during the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint with Magnum Force for his boss since 2014, Ger Lyons.
JAPAN: Christophe Lemaire, extraordinary 7!
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Christophe Lemaire gets us so used to the feat that we end up neglecting his daily performance and his record of service. To tell the truth, it's hard to imagine the efforts he had to make to get to where he is today in Japan. Integrating into a country with codes and customs so different from ours is not the least of the feats of the 45-year-old jockey who has just finished for the 7e once leading the drivers' championship. 176 winners in “only” 590 rides, a win ratio of 30%! This is what an ordinary year looks like for Christophe Lemaire…
UNITED STATES: Flavien Prat, the pioneer
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After ten seasons spent in the United States, Flavien Prat achieved what no other European had done before him: to be the jockey having won the most races at the end of the season, i.e. jockey of the year with 230 races won! A title acquired with style since the Frenchman added to this unprecedented performance, two victories during the Breeders' Cup weekend including the main race, the Classic, with Sierra Leonea total of winnings of more than 37 million dollars and, above all, he broke Jerry Bailey's record, which dated from 2003, by winning no less than 56 groups during the season. All these exploits make him the logical favorite for the next Eclipse Awards which will be held on January 23 in Palm Beach, Florida.
