Never mind Frankie Dettori or Irad Ortiz, Christophe Lemaire or Joel Rosario. And never mind Ryan Moore, who has just been named the Longines World’s Best Jockey because he won six of the IFHA’s 100 top-rated G1s over the last 12 months. No, the Jockey of the Year for 2021 is without doubt the Sydney-based New Zealander James McDonald, as James Willoughby reports here in the first part of his annual review of the TRC Global Rankings.
With 2021 drawing to a close, it is a good time to compare the rankings in each category now with those entering the year. We will then collate the data specific to the last 12 months to further highlight the movers and shakers at the top of the rankings.
This was the Top Ten in the Jockeys’ category on January 1, 2021:
And this is the Top Ten in the latest rankings:
This is the data specific to 2021:
ANALYSIS
The brilliant Kiwi-born James McDonald has taken Australia by storm in 2021 and rightly risen to world #1. Punters down under are happy to pay the ‘J-Mac tax’ and accept a point or two shorter in the odds for his services, while top trainers queue up to engage him in all the big races.
The 29-year-old has teamed up with the likes of Nature Strip, Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant and Zaaki to assume the position his career has long suggested. No jockey in world racing right now is better to watch.
Joel Rosario, born in the Dominican Republic, deserves to be regarded as the top jockey in the U.S. His 49 Group or Graded stakes wins leads the world in 2021 and he has risen from #7 to #3 overall during the campaign, thanks in part to his partnership with Knicks Go and Jackie’s Warrior.
Deposed from the top spot, Frankie Dettori is riding as well as ever as a 51-year-old, replacing some of the veuve of his younger days with an unparalleled understanding of how to get the best out of top horses in the best races. Nobody has ridden more G1 winners in 2021 to date than the Italian’s 14. With Enable retired and Stradivarius on the wane, his best days during the campaign came on top miler Palace Pier, the current world #5.
A great campaign from Godolphin jockey William Buick has not seen him climb any higher than the #4 at which he started the year, but his Performance Index has risen 1766 to 1918 and he is now a lot closer to the world #1 slot, which seems his destiny. He has great synergy with trainer Charlie Appleby, as evinced by their combined effect on high-class horses like Adayar, Hurricane Lane, Space Blues and Yibir.
Coolmore’s retained jockey Ryan Moore has slipped from #5 to #8 during the year but remains a superb rider with what may be the best racing brain on the planet. In the ten-year TRC Global Rankings era, no jockey has occupied the world #1 spot for more weeks, but his results are not as dominant as before because trainer Aidan O’Brien does not enjoy the same rate of success. Nevertheless, Moore has been seen to his usual effect on St Mark’s Basilica, who was our #1 horse until Knicks Go won the Breeders’ Cup Classic and usurped him.
Major gains during the season have been achieved by U.S.-based Luis Saez and the Japanese star Yuga Kuwada. Panamanian Saez has been excellent on Essential Quality, while Kuwada broke through at the Breeders’ Cup on Loves Only You and saw that filly into retirement victoriously in Hong Kong.