Who is, or was, the most successful jockey ever?
In Britain, the most successful jockey ever was Sir Gordon Richards who, between 1921 and 1954, rode 4,870 winners. The late Pat Eddery, who rode 4,633 winners between 1969 and 2003, and the incomparable Lester Piggott, who rode 4,493 winners between 1948 and 1994, are second and third on the all-time list, while Sir Anthony McCoy – far and away the most successful jockey in the history of National Hunt racing – is not far behind, with 4,358 winners.
However, none of the British jockeys can hold a candle to Canadian-born jockey Russell A. Baze who, between 1974 and 2016, rode an astonishing 12,842 winners – from 53,578 rides, at a strike rate of 24% – in North America. Baze is, comfortably, the most successful jockey in the history of horse racing worldwide, even outscoring prolific winners Laffit A. Pincay Jr. and Bill “The Shoe” Shoemaker by several thousand.
Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles), made his debut as an amateur jockey, at the age of 31, in a charity race at Plumpton on March 4, 1980. He finished second aboard favourite Long Wharf and, just four days later, finished fourth aboard Sea Swell in his first steeplechase at Sandown. Later the same year, on October 24 – on the first occasion he and Lady Diana Spencer had been seen together in public – Charles rode his own horse, Allibar, into a highly creditable second place in an amateur riders’ handicap chase at Ludlow. After a promising start, it would be fair to say that the remainder of Charles’ brief riding career was not altogether happy.