Flat Jockey of the Year

Not too many 50-year-old riders have emulated the inaugural winner in 1967, Doug Smith, but this category has a most star-studded roll of honour across all the annual racing awards.

In the 1970s names of the winners include Pat Eddery, Joe Mercer and Willie Carson and the following decade begun with a three-year winning streak for the great Lester Piggott. The brilliance of Steve Cauthen in the 1980s helped him pick up a hat-trick and while Carson and Piggott shared four titles apiece it took a great Italian to come dominate the winners’ list.

A teenage Frankie Dettori begun his supremacy at the start of the following decade and by 1996, the year of his iconic ‘Magnificent Seven’, he had already equalled Carson and Piggott’s tally. Kevin Darley and Kieren Fallon enjoyed a double in that period and each made it three in the new millennium.

The flat and jumps categories were merged between 2012 and 2016 but it was no surprise to see Dettori’s name back on the list when it was restored to its original format. In 2020 history-making Hollie Doyle became the first female rider to win the prize but it was William Buick who has been crowned the winner for the last three years.

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William Buick

2023 Winner

2024 Voting

Details on nominations and voting will be added later this year.

Previous winners

Year Winner
2023 William Buick
2022 William Buick
2021 William Buick
2020 Hollie Doyle
2019 Frankie Dettori
2018 Oisin Murphy
2017 Frankie Dettori
2011 Silvestre De Sousa
2010 Paul Hanagan
2009 Michael Kinane
2008 Johnny Murtagh
2007 Seb Sanders
2006 Ryan Moore
2005 Jamie Spencer
2004 Frankie Dettori
2003 Kieren Fallon
2002 Richard Hughes
2001 Michael Kinane
2000 Kevin Darley
1999 Richard Quinn
1998 Kieren Fallon
1997 Kieren Fallon
1996 Frankie Dettori
1995 Frankie Dettori
1994 Frankie Dettori
1993 Kevin Darley
1992 Michael Roberts
1991 Alan Munro
1990 Frankie Dettori
1989 Willie Carson
1988 Michael Roberts
1987 Steve Cauthen
1986 Pat Eddery
1985 Steve Cauthen
1984 Steve Cauthen
1983 Willie Carson
1982 Lester Piggott
1981 Lester Piggott
1980 Lester Piggott
1979 Joe Mercer
1978 Greville Starkey
1977 Willie Carson
1976 Brian Taylor
1975 Joe Mercer
1974 Pat Eddery
1973 Tony Murray
1972 Edward Hide
1971 Willie Carson
1970 Lester Piggott
1969 Geoff Lewis
1968 Sandy Barclay
1967 Doug Smith