Major wins
Great Britain
- Nunthorpe Stakes - (2) - Mecca's Angel (2015, 2016)
| Paul Mulrennan | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Jockey |
| Major racing wins | |
| Nunthorpe Stakes (2015, 2016) | |
| Significant horses | |
| Mecca's Angel | |
Paul Mulrennan is an English flat racing jockey, whose biggest victories to date have been back to back wins on Mecca's Angel in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes in 2015 and 2016. He also won six times on another sprinter Mabs Cross. Both were trained by Michael Dods.
In his schooldays, he hoped for a career in Gaelic football, but his careers adviser suggested he was too short and should consider becoming a jockey instead. [1] He started race riding in 2000 and rode out his apprentice claim in 2004.
His first big early successes came on the Mick Easterby-trained Gentleman's Deal, on whom he won the Ladybird Stakes, Group 3 Winter Derby and Quebec Stakes in 2007. Other big race victories then came on Dandino in the 2011 Jockey Club Stakes, Melody of Love in the 2012 Firth of Clyde Stakes and Moviesta in the 2013 King George Stakes, before his partnership with Mecca's Angel throughout 2015 and 2016 brought him the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes, Group 3 Prix de Saint-Georges, Group 3 World Trophy and Listed Scarbrough Stakes as well as two Nunthorpes. Easton Angel was another successful horse for him in 2016 winning both the Westow Stakes and Scurry Stakes. Mabs Cross won two Palace House Stakes for him.
In both 2014 and 2016, he rode more than 100 winners, but seriously injured his back in a fall on the gallops in 2018 [1] and dropped to 43 winners in that year, before reaching a new peak of 108 winners in 2022. [2] In 2020, he won the Land O'Burns Fillies' Stakes and was second in another Nunthorpe on Que Amora, losing out to Battaash, and across 2020 and 2021 he won three Group 3s including the Brigadier Gerard Stakes on the Jim Goldie-trained Euchen Glen. Azure Blue, another Michael Dods horse, gave him Listed and Group 2 success in 2023.
As of 2023, he had ridden nearly 1400 winners. [3]
Great Britain
Sir Gordon Richards was an English jockey who was the British flat racing Champion Jockey 26 times, and is often considered the world's greatest jockey. He remains the only flat jockey to have been knighted.
Lanfranco "Frankie" Dettori, is an Italian jockey who was based in England for a career spanning over 35 years. He was British flat racing Champion Jockey three times and rode the winners of 287 Group 1 races including 23 winners of the British Classic Races. His most celebrated achievement was riding all seven winners on British Festival of Racing Day at Ascot Racecourse on 28 September 1996.
John R. Velazquez is a Puerto Rican jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He began his career in Puerto Rico and moved to New York in 1990. In 2004 and 2005 he was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings and both years was given the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey. He was inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2012, rode his 5,000th winner in 2013, and became the leading money-earning jockey in the history of the sport in 2014.
George Duffield MBE is an English retired flat racing jockey.
Seb Sanders is a former flat race jockey. Sanders was British Champion Flat Jockey in 2007, a title he shared with Jamie Spencer.
Jamie Spencer is an Irish flat racing jockey currently riding in the UK. He has been champion jockey in both Ireland and Britain and has won seven classics, five in Ireland and two in England. Spencer is an advocate for the art of holding up horses late into the races, and then making use of their natural dash of speed.
Ian Balding is a retired British horse trainer. He is the son of the polo player and racehorse trainer Gerald Matthews Balding and the younger brother of trainer Toby Balding. Ian Balding was born in the US, but his family returned to the UK in 1945. He was educated at Marlborough College and Millfield school in Somerset. He went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1959 to read Rural Estate Management, where he played Rugby for the university team, gaining his Blue in 1961 at full back. He started training in 1964. Kingsclere became his home at the age of 26 and it is here that earned his reputation as an internationally respected trainer.
Herbert Ebsworth Jones, often known as Bertie, was an English Thoroughbred horse racing jockey.
Dayjur was an American-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist sprinter, he ran eleven times between June 1989 and October 1990 and won seven races. In 1990 he dominated European sprinting, winning the King's Stand Stakes, the Nunthorpe Stakes, the Ladbroke Sprint Cup and the Prix de l'Abbaye. On his final racecourse appearance he finished second to Safely Kept in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. The Racing Post and the Sporting Life called him the world's fastest horse. Dayjur was one of the highest-rated European sprinters since World War Two.
William Buick is a Norwegian-British flat jockey. He shared the champion apprentice jockey title in 2008 with David Probert and won the Lester Award for Apprentice Jockey of the Year in 2007 and 2008. From 2010 to 2014 he was stable jockey to John Gosden. In 2015 he signed with Godolphin. Buick won his first Group1 race in Canada in 2010 and since then has won Group 1 races in England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. He has won five British Classic Races: the St Leger in 2010, 2011 and 2021, the Derby in 2018 and the 2000 Guineas in 2024.
Silvestre de Sousa is a Brazilian flat racing jockey who is based in Britain and was three times champion jockey.
Paul Hanagan is a Classic-winning British flat racing jockey. Hanagan was twice been crowned champion jockey on the flat in Britain, riding 165 winners in 2011 to defend his title, having won his first title with 191 winners in 2010. Over a career spanning 25 years, he won a total of ten Group 1 races including the Epsom Oaks. From 1999 to 2022 he rode for the Malton-based trainer Richard Fahey, except for a four-and-a-half year break when he was retained by owner Sheikh Hamdan. He announced his retirement from race riding in August 2023.
Mecca's Angel is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. She was a specialist sprinter who excelled over the minimum distance of five furlongs. She showed promise as a two-year-old in 2013, winning two minor contests and twice finishing second in Listed races. In the following year she improved to win four of her five races including the Scarbrough Stakes and World Trophy. As a four-year-old she made only three appearances but was rated the best female sprinter in the world after wins in the Prix de Saint-Georges and the Nunthorpe Stakes. In 2016 she struggled for form in the spring but then won the Sapphire Stakes before becoming the first horse in over thirty years to win a second consecutive Nunthorpe Stakes at York.
Jim Crowley is an English jockey who was British flat racing Champion Jockey in 2016. He has ridden as first jockey to Shadwell since 2016.
Adam Kirby is a Group 1-winning British jockey.
Wayne Lordan is a multiple Group race-winning Irish jockey.
Battaash is retired Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist sprinter who usually competed at the minimum distance of five furlongs, he was noted for his exceptional speed and unpredictable temperament. He won once from five starts as a juvenile in 2016 and was gelded in an attempt to improve his behaviour. In the following year he emerged as one of the best sprinters in the world, winning the Scurry Stakes, Coral Charge and King George Stakes before ending the season with an emphatic win in the Prix de l'Abbaye. In 2018 he won the Temple Stakes and recorded a second victory in the King George Stakes. As a five-year-old he won a second Temple Stakes and a third King George Stakes before producing his best performance of the season to take the Nunthorpe Stakes. In 2020 he was unbeaten in three starts, namely the King's Stand Stakes, King George Stakes and Nunthorpe Stakes. He was retired after two unsuccessful runs in 2021.
Mabs Cross is a British Thoroughbred racehorse. She did not compete as a two-year-old in 2017 and in the following year she ran mainly in minor sprint handicaps before being stepped up in class to win the Arran Scottish Fillies' Sprint Stakes on her final appearance of the season. In 2018 she made relentless improvement, winning the Palace House Stakes in spring and then being placed in the King's Stand Stakes and the Nunthorpe Stakes before recording her biggest success in the Prix de l'Abbaye. The highlight of her final campaign was a second win in the Palace House Stakes.
Alpha Delphini is a British Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist sprinter, he was unraced as a juvenile and did not win a race until the August of his four-year-old campaign. In 2016 he made steady progress, winning three handicap races before taking the Listed Beverley Bullet Sprint Stakes. He won two minor races in 2017 and in the following year he recorded his biggest success when he won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. He failed to win in four subsequent races and was retired from racing in 2020.
Eric Ephraim Smith was an English flat racing jockey, who rode over 2,000 winners, including the winners of three Classics, in a career spanning over 30 years. He was three times the British flat racing Champion Apprentice and was ranked 23rd in the Racing Post's top 50 jockeys of the 20th century.