There\u2019s also career longevity to consider, international success in big events and striking up memorable partnerships with famous racehorses<\/a> too. Comparing jockeys from different eras and places, and with different riding styles is always difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We thought we\u2019d have a go anyway. With honorable mentions\nfor Eddie Arcaro, Javier Castellano, Pat Day and Chris McCarron, this is our\nlist of the top 10 jockeys of all-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 12-time Irish champion jumps jockey, Ruby Walsh retired\nfrom the saddle in 2019 as the rider with the most wins in Cheltenham Festival\nhistory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to 59 race victories at the premier event of British\nIsles National Hunt horse racing, he was also top jockey at the Festival 11\ntimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walsh is best known for long associations with champion trainers Paul Nicholls<\/a> in the UK and Willie Mullins<\/a> in Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His memorable race\npartnerships include Hurricane Fly and Kauto Star. These horses regained the\nChampion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup respectively to rapturous ovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ruby partnered two Grand National winners \u2013 Papillon for his father Ted Walsh in 2000 on his first-ever ride over the Aintree fences, and Hedgehunter for Mullins in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russell Baze may not be as high-profile as others on our\nlist of famous jockeys, but there isn\u2019t a professional horse rider who can\nclaim to have won more races. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He has almost 13,000 winning rides at an almost 25 percent\nstrike rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly one in ever four of the racehorses Baze has sat on in his career, he has partnered to victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an incredible achievement and, while there aren\u2019t any major wins in US Triple Crown or Breeders\u2019 Cup races on his CV, he is well worth his place on this list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Born in Canada to an American family, Baze is a 10-time American champion jockey by most winners. Lost in the Fog, the US champion sprinter from 2005, is perhaps his most famous equine partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a record 20-time British champion jumps jockey in consecutive years, McCoy’s desire and will to win was unparalleled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He set a new record for most National Hunt winners in a\nsingle season in the UK in 2001-02. McCoy steered 289 rides past the post first\nin that memorable campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best known for his association with trainer Martin Pipe<\/a>, he became retained rider to leading Irish owner JP McManus<\/a>. That supplied McCoy with a raft of big rides, but he still went for quantity over quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No jumps jockey in British horse racing history has ridden more winners than this man. McCoy\u2019s most famous equine partnerships include Brave Inca, Binocular and 2010 Grand National winner Don\u2019t Push It. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Second on America\u2019s all-time list of winning most jockeys is Laffit Pincay, Jr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A seven-time champion jockey stateside in terms of prize\nmoney, he dominated the sport in the early 1970s and rode the most winners in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pincay Jr. partnered Affirmed to US Triple Crown glory in\n1978. A sure-fire Hall of Famer, he started riding in his native Panama before\nmaking it big in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An incredible mark of 9.530 career wins saw Pincay Jr. retire then as the most successful jockey ever in terms of winners. Only Baze has surpassed him since, so he just had to be included in this list that puts forward names for the best horse jockey ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Frankie is best known for his flying dismounts and 20-year association with powerful worldwide thoroughbred racehorse operation Godolphin<\/a>. He was retained rider to Sheikh Mohammed for a golden period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dettori has pretty much done it all in a career that continues\nto this day. For that reason, he has to be in the conversation for best horse\njockey ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody has ridden more winners of France\u2019s most famous\nrace, the Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe, than Frankie with six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His partnerships with Stradivarius, Enable, Golden Horn,\nAuthorized, Shamardal, Singspiel and a whole host of other Flat luminaries in\nEurope and beyond ensure Dettori\u2019s place among famous jockeys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Frankie has even been UK champion Flat jockey three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proof, as if it were needed, that age is no barrier to\nsuccess is embodied by Mike Smith. At the age of 52, he partnered with Justify\nto claim the US Triple Crown in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the highlight of his career despite being towards\nthe end of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith is synonymous with success at the Breeders\u2019 Cup too,\nwinning 26 races at the premier Flat thoroughbred meeting in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arrogate, who has won some of the richest races staged in\nthe world, is another of Smith\u2019s high-profile equine partners in a career that\nbegan in 1982. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He has also set a new record for most American Grade 1 successes in the saddle, surpassing honorable mention Jerry Bailey, at the end of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any list of famous horse jockeys needs to have a 26-time\nchampion on it. That\u2019s what Sir Gordon Richards managed during a glittering\ncareer in the saddle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While he wasn\u2019t as prolific in the British Classics as some\nof the other UK based jockeys on our list, Richards set a record that may never\nbe broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Longevity and sustained success are both boxes firmly\nchecked in this case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Richards became a fine racehorse trainer after retiring\nfrom riding and son Nicky still has stables at Penrith on the edge of Lake\nDistrict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sun Chariot, a rare winner of the UK Fillies\u2019 Triple Crown, and Tudor Minstrel are perhaps Richards\u2019 most famous equine partnerships from the 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No jockey on planet earth can claim to have bagged more\nprize money than John Velazquez. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Puerto Rico native has in excess of $415,000,000 in\ncareer earnings and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With well over 6,000 winning rides, Velazquez is still\nseeking the career Triple Crown in the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just glory in the Preakness Stakes eludes him with two wins apiece in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Velazquez has topped the prize money charts twice in America and remains consistent as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kitten\u2019s Joy and Scat Daddy, who have both become huge influences on thoroughbred breeding as sires of great racehorses since going to stud, are among his most famous equine partners. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now we come to \u201cThe Long Fellow\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lester Piggott takes the second spot in our list of famous\nhorse jockeys, because he not only had longevity, sustained success at the top\nin the UK and Ireland but international success too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Piggott\u2019s way of riding racehorses has been imitated ever\nsince. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With 30 British Classics under his belt, including the UK\nTriple Crown of 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St Leger with Nijinsky in 1970,\nhe partnered many of the best Flat thoroughbreds in Europe over four decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An 11-time UK champion Flat jockey, Piggott even has the British horse racing awards \u2013 the Lesters<\/a> \u2013 named after him. And with nine wins, he is the most successful rider in Epsom Derby history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Piggott also holds the record for most victories in the Ascot Gold Cup (11), Dewhurst Stakes (10), July Cup (10), Coronation Cup (nine) and many other Group 1 races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quite possibly the best horse jockey ever though, is Bill\nShoemaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He rode 11 US Triple Crown winners, but never captured all\nthree prizes in the same season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although he is only third on the all-time list of winning\nmost American Flat jockeys, Shoemaker had a career strike rate over 21 percent.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, about one in every five horses he ever rode\nwon their races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He topped the earnings table 10 times in his career in the\nsaddle, holds a deserved place in National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame\nand was champion US jockey five times in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoemaker went on to earn more than treble what he made\nriding as a racehorse trainer once he retired after 41 years of being a jockey.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is truly one of the all-time greats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources: Famous jockeys are part and parcel of horse racing. Measuring their success is extremely subjective, however. There are different ways …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":20949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n10. Ruby\nWalsh<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ruby](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ruby_walsh-1024x683.jpeg\")
9. Russell Baze<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Russell](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Russell-Baze.jpeg\")
8. Sir Tony\nMcCoy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sir-tony-mccoy.jpeg\")
7. Laffit\nPincay, Jr<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Laffit](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Laffit-Pincay-Jr.jpeg\")
6. Frankie\nDettori<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Frankie](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/frankie-dettori.jpeg\")
5. Mike E.\nSmith<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/mike-e-smith.jpg\")
4. Sir Gordon\nRichards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Gordon-Richards-1024x821.jpeg\")
3. John R.\nVelazquez<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/John-R-Velazquez.jpeg\")
2. Lester\nPiggott<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Lester](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lester-piggott.jpeg\")
1. Bill\nShoemaker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bill-shoemaker.jpeg\")
https:\/\/www.bloodhorse.com\/horse-racing\/articles\/237677\/omaha-beach-wins-malibu-under-record-setting-smith<\/a> https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Gordon-Richards<\/a> https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/racing\/news\/12426\/9818547\/ap-mccoys-career-in-numbers-we-compile-the-jockeys-achievements-ahead-of-retirement<\/a> https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/sport\/horse-racing\/ruby-walshs-net-worth-career-14090629<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"