Tony McFadden highlights key facts and figures from 2024, including the top performances.
Winningmost horse
No horse in 2024 was as prolific as Destinado who won eight times and climbed up the weights to help underline his new trainer James Owen's talent.
Destinado made a winning debut for the yard at Wolverhampton on January 5 from a basement BHA handicap mark of 45 but by the end of April he had added a further five wins to his tally, including a valuable Sky Bet Sunday Series Handicap at Musselburgh off a BHA mark of 69.
Destinado then struggled for a while either side of a mid-season break which resulted in a slide in the weights, but he climbed back up the handicap, adding a further two wins to his total, and ended the year on a BHA mark of 70, 25 lb higher than in January. That significant rise was also reflected in his Timeform rating which improved from 48+ to 78.
Other horses who enjoyed notable success after joining Owen in 2024 were Kinetic, who won four times on the Flat and increased her Timeform rating by 21 lb, and Mermaids Cave who won four times over hurdles and increased her Timeform rating by 17 lb.
Owen's strike rate of 17.4% on the Flat in 2024 placed him 12th among trainers with at least 100 runners in Britain or Ireland, while a level-stake profit of £43.53 put him seventh on that metric. His prowess with new recruits has been especially notable and in 2024 his record with stable debutants starting out in Flat handicaps was 10 winners at a hugely impressive 30.3% strike rate, so he is a trainer to remain positive about.
Destinado's 28 runs in 2024 made him the third most active horse in the year, with only Visibility (two wins from 30 starts) and Port Noir (three wins from 29 starts) seen out more often.
Six wins was the most clocked by a jumps horse during the year with Beat Box, Clean Getaway, Chemical Warfare, Classic Maestro, Double Powerful, Lady Balko, Skyjack Hijack and Gale Mahler.
Skyjack Hijack and Classic Maestro are trained by Jennie Candlish, while Chemical Warfare and Lady Balko are with David Pipe. Both trainers deserve credit for steering those campaigns.
Top performances
For the second year running Galopin des Champs was responsible for the best performance over jumps based on Timeform's ratings. He didn't quite perform to the same level as in 2023 when earning a rating of 179 for his astonishing 23-length win in the Savills Chase, but he was still responsible for the two best efforts of 2024 courtesy of his decisive victories in the Irish Gold Cup and Cheltenham Gold Cup which were both rated 175. Galopin des Champs was one of nine winners at the latest Cheltenham Festival for Mullins who brought up a remarkable century at the meeting when Jasmin de Vaux won the Champion Bumper.
Galopin des Champs took his unbeaten record over fences at Leopardstown to six when decisively landing the Savills Chase for the second year in succession and all of those performances have been rated as top-class on Timeform's scale (the benchmark is 165). He will aim to enhance that record in the Irish Gold Cup again before bidding to emulate Best Mate and becoming only the second horse since Arkle to win a third Cheltenham Gold Cup.
City of Troy may not have completely lived up to the extremely lofty expectations many held for him, in part prompted by his Aidan O'Brien's declaration that he was the best he'd trained, but he was still responsible for the best Flat effort in Britain or Ireland in 2024 when winning the Juddmonte International.
That earned City of Troy a rating of 130p, some 6 lb shy of what O'Brien's top performer Hawk Wing achieved in the 2003 Lockinge Stakes, but it was still a top-class effort on Timeform's scale and a third Group 1 in succession after winning the Derby and Eclipse. Sea The Stars is the only other horse who has completed that treble in the same season.
None of the two-year-old colts in 2024 reached the same level City of Troy achieved when crowned champion juvenile the previous campaign but, as is always the case, there are plenty of talented horses who either haven't been seen or shown the extent of their ability.
Of the eight once-raced juvenile winners with Timeform's Large P symbol to highlight they are capable of much better form, Ralph Beckett is responsible for three of them with Pride of Arras, Bright Times Ahead and I Am I Said.
Beckett's success with his two-year-olds was a notable theme of 2024 and his 52 winners in Britain and Ireland was surpassed by only Karl Burke (55 at 19.86%) and Aidan O'Brien (80 at 29%).
Perhaps the most notable two-year-old performer last season was O'Brien's Lake Victoria who won top-level contests at six furlongs, seven furlongs and a mile and earned a rating of 119p to mark her out as the highest-rated filly. The last time a juvenile filly trained in Britain or Ireland achieved a higher rating was Minding (120p) in 2015.
O'Brien was out on his own in the British trainers' championship, amassing in excess of £3 million more than nearest pursuer Andrew Balding. Balding's team for 2025 has been strengthened by some promising recruits from Sir Michael Stoute, including Jonquil and Formal, after the legendary trainer retired following a 52-year career.
Jockey focus
No jockey was more active in Britain or Ireland in 2024 than Rossa Ryan who had 1180 rides, seven more than Billy Loughnane who would have topped the list but for opting to head to Australia during the northern hemisphere winter. The only other jockeys who had more than 1000 mounts were Luke Morris (1062), Jason Hart (1018) and Oisin Murphy (1007).
Murphy was a runaway winner of the jockeys' championship, which ran from 2000 Guineas Day in May to Champions Day in October, and he also registered the most winners in the calendar year with a total of 216. Ryan also passed the 200-winner mark in Britain and Ireland, doing so for the second year in a row. There were also some very significant overseas wins for Ryan who won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Bluestocking and Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint on Starlust.
There would have been no prizes for guessing Ryan Moore (29.13%), William Buick (21.88%) and Oisin Murphy (21.45%) were the top three Flat riders based on strike rate among those who had at least 50 mounts in 2024, for all the extent of Moore's remarkable success would have been hard to predict and represented an uplift on previous campaigns (he operated at 25.41% in 2023 and 22.07% in 2022).
The next on the list would have been harder to predict, however, with Callum Rodriguez filling that slot after enjoying comfortably his most prolific year yet with 90 winners at a strike rate of 19.65%. Rodriguez has reaped the rewards of being principal rider for the upwardly mobile Ed Bethell stable which provided the jockey with a Royal Ascot winner aboard Mickley in the Britannia Stakes.
Rodriguez also took his chance when turned to by some major yards, most notably William Haggas who enlisted his services for the first time in 2024. Rodriguez won on four of his 11 rides in Britain for Haggas, including on the highly promising Sky Majesty in the Group 3 Firth of Clyde Stakes. Harry Charlton is another trainer with plenty of firepower who turned to Rodriguez with success in the latest season, so it would be little surprise to see the rider build on that success.
Over jumps Harry Skelton and Sean Bowen both ended the calendar year with 151 winners; Bowen heads into the new year seven ahead in the jockeys' championship which runs from May to April.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
