After a good battle with Ryan Moore, James McDonald has received the 2024 Longines World’s Greatest Jockey title. The New Zealand-born, Australia-based jockey additionally received the World’s Greatest Jockey Award in 2022.
To say the title, McDonald received 9 of the world’s prime 100 group or grade 1 races, along with his qualifying victories coming within the Hong Kong Mile (Romantic Warrior), Stewards’ Cup (Voyage Bubble), Hong Kong Gold Cup (Romantic Warrior), Ranvet Stakes (Through Sistina), Queen Elizabeth II Cup (Romantic Warrior), Yasuda Kinen (Romantic Warrior), Cox Plate (Through Sistina), Champions Dash (Sunshine in Paris), and Champions Stakes (Through Sistina).
McDonald received this 12 months’s award by a slim margin of 10 factors. The scoring course of rewards jockeys for ending within the prime three, giving McDonald a complete of 160 factors on the 12 months. Moore, who has received this award 4 occasions, was second with 150 factors, whereas William Buick was third with 105 factors.
The awarding of the World’s Greatest Jockey title is predicated upon performances within the 100 highest-rated group 1 and grade 1 races as established for the 12 months by the Longines World’s Greatest Racehorse Rankings Committee. The scoring incorporates races from Dec. 1 of the earlier 12 months via Nov. 30 of the present 12 months. Jockeys accrue 12 factors for a win, 6 factors for putting second, and 4 factors for putting third.
A ceremony might be held in the course of the gala dinner of the Longines Hong Kong Worldwide Races Dec. 6 2024 on the Hong Kong Conference & Exhibition Centre to honor McDonald. The complete and last standings for the 2024 Longines World’s Greatest Jockey competitors might be discovered at www.ifhaonline.org.
The Longines World’s Greatest Jockey Award was established 11 years in the past by Swiss watch model Longines and the Worldwide Federation of Horseracing Authorities as a approach to quantitatively acknowledge a jockey as the perfect amongst his or her world friends. Moore was the inaugural recipient of the award and his different wins got here in 2016, 2021, and 2023. Frankie Dettori has additionally received the award 4 occasions, along with his victories coming in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Hugh Bowman received the award in 2017.
This press launch has been edited for content material and elegance by BloodHorse Employees.
