‘WHILE PAUL TOWNEND REGULARLY RIDES THE BEST HORSE, HE ALSO MAKES FEWEST MISTAKES’

JOCKEYS

How do we best judge jockeys? That is one of the more difficult questions to answer because the amount of success a rider enjoys is correlated with the class of horse they regularly ride.

I have been known to argue – maybe mischievously – that horseracing is like Formula One. In motor racing the fastest car wins more often than not – not the best driver – and there is a strong argument that the same happens in horse racing. The best horse wins – not the best jockey.

However, the best jockeys get it consistently right more often than others and, while Paul Townend regularly rides the best horse, he also makes the fewest mistakes and is the leading jockey right now. Like Mullins in the trainer list I’ll be surprised if he’s usurped from the top.

There isn’t a lot between the next five in the rankings behind him and I’d expect Nico de Boinville to throw down a serious challenge to Aidan Coleman for second when Nicky Henderson’s string hits top gear in winter. And how high can amateur Patrick Mullins go?

No Rachael Blackmore? She is another who is likely to climb the table as the season takes shape but on recent form Stan Sheppard, working for the red-hot Tom Lacey, is riding better.

Champion jockey Brian Hughes just missed out on the top ten along with other big names like Jack Kennedy, Harry Cobden, Davy Russell and Harry Skelton. It will be interesting to see whether they can break through once their star rides start returning from summer breaks.

GRAEME RODWAY

Graeme Rodway’s trainer and jockey power rankings are based on a 365-day rolling snapshot of trainers whose runners ran to an RPR of 140-plus on their previous start