The British flat season officially kicked off at the Doncaster Lincoln Meeting on the 29th of March. However, for those with an eye on claiming the Champion Jockey Title, the campaign only truly sprang to life on the opening day of the Guineas Festival, over a month later.
One of the vagaries of racing organisation in this country is that the Jockeys’ Championship is a little out of sync with the official season dates, with only wins between Guineas weekend and Champions Day in October counting towards the championship.
Now moving into the third week of May, the battle for individual glory is well under way, with William Buick, Paul Mulrennan, Rossa Ryan, and Tom Marquand the early pace setters. However, with only three wins separating top spot from 15th place in the early exchanges, it may be a few weeks before a clear picture emerges at the head of affairs.
The murky picture hasn’t stopped racing fans and punters predicting who will raise the trophy aloft in October, with the following six riders dominating much of the discussion. And the betting.
Oisin Murphy
We begin with the champ. Successful in 2019, 2020, and 2021, Oisin Murphy claimed the title for a fourth time in 2024, when finishing fully 53 wins clear of his nearest pursuer.
As the retained rider to Qatar Racing and number one jockey at the yard of title-chasing Andrew Balding, Murphy can count on both quantity and quality of rides and is unlikely to be far away.
Rossa Ryan
Despite the obvious claims of the reigning champ, many bookmakers make 24-year-old Rossa Ryan the favourite to claim the 2025 title. With 201 wins across the whole of 2024, Ryan was only 14 behind Murphy overall. Unfortunately, as far as the Jockeys Championship is concerned, “only” 110 of those came in the crucial May to October period.
Best known for his association with the wonderful Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe-winning mare, Bluestocking, Ryan continues to receive support from the Ralph Beckett operation. Third in 2023, second in 2024, former All-Weather Champion Ryan is a big threat to all.
Billy Loughnane
The Irish flavour continues in the Champion Jockey race with this up-and-coming star. Still only 19, the son of Irish trainer Daniel Loughnane has taken the racing world by storm since first hitting the track as a 16-year-old in 2022.
“I’m chuffed, it’s been a good winter and a long, hard battle with Hector for the past few months!”@loughnane_billy was crowned @awchamps Champion Jockey at @LingfieldPark earlier today…
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 18, 2025
British All-Weather Champion Apprentice in 2022/23 and 2023/24, he claimed the overall flat Champion Apprentice title in 2023. The 2024/25 seasons saw him add the British All-Weather Champion Jockey trophy to his rapidly filling cabinet. Fourth behind Murphy last season, this rising talent is expected to go close in 2025.
Tom Marquand
The male half of horse racing’s most famous couple finished third in 2024 with 106 wins, whilst in 2022 he came even closer when joint second with partner Hollie Doyle. Now the retained rider to the powerful William Haggas yard, Tom can count on quality mounts at the biggest meetings of the year. If able to pick up rides and keep things ticking over at the lesser meetings, he seems sure to be in the mix once again.
William Buick
Charlie Appleby’s number one, William Buick rattled in 157 winners to claim the title in 2022 and defended his crown with a 135-winner haul in 2023. Buick slipped to fifth with 81 winners in 2024, but has flown out of the traps this season. Bagging both Newmarket Classics, he tops the early standings and can never be ruled out given the wealth of talent at his disposal.
Hollie Doyle
A female rider has yet to claim the British Champion Jockeys title. However, no woman has come as close as Hollie Doyle with that joint runner-up finish in 2022. Now boasting more flat wins than any female jockey in British racing history, she’s the retained rider for Archie Watson and the powerful owner Imad Alsagar.
With Rossa Ryan racking up 1,176 rides in 2024 and Billy Loughnane 1,170, Doyle will need to up her numbers, having ridden “only” 972 times last year. However, if she does, she may make the current odds of a general 25/1 look pretty big.
With Callum Rodriguez, Daniel Tudhope, and former champ Silvestre De Sousa also in the mix, the race for the 2025 Champion Jockeys’ title promises to be as thrilling as the individual events on the track
