Jockeys' title race: Joe Fanning leads the way

Currently in first place, Fanning is competing with some of the sports leading talent who fill the top 10 places of the leaderboard including former title race winners Oisin Murphy, Ryan Moore and last year’s winner, William Buick.

This season, the 52-year-old has been prolific and at the top of his game. Having won 35 of his 157 rides, Fanning is currently operating at a 22% strike rate.

Murphy who won the Flat Jockeys’ Championship in 2019, 2020 and 2021, closely follows Fanning with 34 wins with a strike rate of 15%, with Hollie Doyle chasing the pair with 31 wins and a strike rate of 17%. Last year, Doyle finished joint second in the Championship, the highest placing of a woman rider in the sport ever. *

Speaking on the Championship, Fanning said: “I am really pleased with how the season has started, it feels fantastic to still be riding regular winners. The horses are running well, it is still early days, but hopefully I can get a few big wins along the way too.”

“There is a long way in the Championship to go yet, but I am pleased with how it is going, and it has been good to be a contender in the competitive title race. I try not to think about the Championship too much, I am just enjoying it.”

Fanning’s career started in 1986 riding for Irish trainer Kevin Connolly. In 1988, he moved to England and began working for Tommy Fairhurst in Middleham, Yorkshire. Since 1996, Fanning has been primarily associated with trainer Mark Johnston to whom he has been a retained rider for. Since Charlie Johnston took over his father’s (Mark) license in 2022, Fanning has remained retained rider, and in the last two weeks alone they have enjoyed six wins together.

Fanning has ridden more than 2,780 winners during his career and celebrated success at Group 1 level three times. His Group 1 wins include the Middle Park Stakes in 2016, aboard The Last Lion, the Prix – Royal Oak and the Ascot Gold Cup, both on star stayer, Subjectivist.

Fanning has been successful in the All-Weather Championships winning the competition twice, in 2009/10 and 2011/12. Fanning has also been one of only a handful of jockeys to have won a race at every racecourse in Great Britain.

Doyle, who enjoyed three impressive wins at Royal Ascot last week, said: “I’ve been pleased with how the season has started. Royal Ascot is a tough place to ride any winner, so it was brilliant to ride three winners there, particularly given they were all for my boss Archie Watson.

“Archie deserves huge credit for producing his horses in such brilliant form at such a big meeting. Having Group 1 calibre horses like Bradsell to look forward to for the remainder of the season is very exciting and I hope that there’ll be further big days to come.”

The 2023 Flat Jockeys’ Championship runs from 6th May – 21st October 2023 and is one of horseracing's most prestigious titles, having been won by some of the biggest names in sport, including Lester Piggott, eleven-time Champion Jockey, and Frankie Dettori, three-time Champion Jockey.

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