Major wins
- Falmouth Stakes - (1) - Prosperous Voyage (2022)
- July Cup - (1) - Alcohol Free (2022)
France
- Prix Royal-Oak - (1) - Scope (2021)
- Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud - (1) - Westover (2023)
| Rob Hornby | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Flat racing jockey |
| Born | 28 May 1995 |
| Nationality | British |
| Significant horses | |
Robert Hornby (born 28 May 1995) is a British jockey who competes in flat racing. Riding as a freelance, his four Group 1 wins, as of 2023, have been for trainers Andrew Balding and Ralph Beckett.
Hornby grew up on a farm in Chelmarsh, Shropshire, and attended Bridgnorth Endowed School, leaving at the age of sixteen to become an apprentice at the Kingsclere yard of Andrew Balding. [1]
Hornby achieved his first Group race success on 25 August 2018 when he rode the Balding-trained Maid Up to victory in the Group 3 March Stakes at Goodwood. [2] His first Group 1 win was on Scope, trained by Ralph Beckett, in the Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp in Paris on 24 October 2021. It was Hornby's first ride in France, and came after he had missed part of the season with a shoulder injury sustained during a fall at Wolverhampton in December 2020. [1]
In 2022 Hornby rode the Beckett-trained Westover in the Epsom Derby. It was his first ride in the Derby. He had already ridden Westover in three of his four races, winning a maiden stakes at Sandown in August 2021, coming second in a conditions stakes at Newbury in September 2021 and then winning the Group 3 Sandown Classic Trial in April 2022. Westover started at odds of 25/1 in the Derby and finished in third place, having failed to get a clear run. [3] Westover went on to win the Irish Derby, but the ride had been given to the more experienced Irish jockey Colin Keane. [4] There was consolation for Hornby when he won two Group 1 races at the Newmarket July Festival, taking the Falmouth Stakes on the Beckett-trained Prosperous Voyage and the July Cup on the Balding-trained Alcohol Free. [5] He continued his winning streak on the July Course at Newmarket when landing the Grey Horse Handicap on Strike a month later. [6]
France
Lanfranco Dettori, better known as Frankie Dettori, is an Italian jockey based in England. In a career spanning over 35 years, he has been British flat racing Champion Jockey three times and has ridden 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.
Sir Charles Francis Noel Murless was an English racehorse trainer who one of the most successful of the twentieth century. Murless began his career as a trainer in 1935 at Hambleton Lodge in Yorkshire before moving to Hambleton House after the war, at one time sharing premises with Ryan Price. In 1947, he moved south, first to Beckhampton, Wiltshire and then to Warren Place, Newmarket.
Ryan Lee Moore is an English flat racing jockey, who was Champion Jockey in 2006, 2008 and 2009. He is currently the first choice jockey for Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle operation, a role in which he mainly rides horses owned by Coolmore Stud. He also sometimes rides horses for Juddmonte and The Queen. As of 2023, Moore has ridden over 170 Group or Grade 1 winners internationally. He has the most British Group & Listed wins of any active jockey.
John Harry Martin Gosden is a British racehorse trainer. He has trained over 3,000 winners worldwide, including winners of the Breeders' Cup Classic, the Derby, the Arc, the King George, the Eclipse, and over 600 winners in the United States.
Geoff Wragg was a Thoroughbred horse trainer who trained champion horses such as Teenoso and Pentire. He was the son of former jockey and trainer Harry Wragg, from whom he took over the licence at Abington Place, Newmarket in 1983 upon his father's retirement. Wragg retired in 2008 after 25 years of training and sold Abington Place to Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum the following spring. He relocated to Yorkshire, the birthplace of his late father, Harry Wragg. He died in 2017.
Authorized is an Irish-bred and British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse, winner of the 2007 Epsom Derby.
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.
Joseph Mercer, OBE was an English thoroughbred race horse jockey. He was active from 1947 to 1985, riding 2,810 winners in Britain. Mercer's nickname was "Smokin' Joe.”
James Joseph Fortune is a retired Irish thoroughbred jockey who in a 30-year career won over 1,800 races, including 16 Group 1s, and 1 British Classic, the 2007 St Leger.
Colm O'Donoghue is a multiple Group 1 and Classic winning flat jockey. For most of his career, he was based at the Ballydoyle racing stables in Rosegreen, Cashel, County Tipperary.
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 four British Classic Races: the St Leger in 2010, 2011 and 2021 and the Derby in 2018.
David Probert is a Welsh jockey who was joint British flat racing Champion Apprentice in 2008.
James Doyle is a flat racing jockey. He is the son of former trainer Jacqueline Doyle. Since 2014, he has been one of the retained riders to Godolphin Racing in the UK, mainly riding horses trained by Charlie Appleby.
Adam Kirby is a Group 1-winning British jockey.
Oisin Murphy is an Irish jockey based in the United Kingdom who competes in flat racing. He has won two British Classic and a number of Group 1 races. He was British Champion Jockey in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Sean Levey is a Swazi born, Classic-winning jockey based in the United Kingdom.
Alcohol Free is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. She was one of the best juvenile fillies in Europe in 2020 when she won two of her three races including the Cheveley Park Stakes. She improved as a three-year-old, winning the Fred Darling Stakes, Coronation Stakes and Sussex Stakes. As a four-year-old in 2022 she was dropped back to sprint distances and added a further Group One success when winning the July Cup.
The 2022 Epsom Derby was the 243rd annual running of the Derby horse race which took place at Epsom Downs Racecourse on 4 June 2022. The race was sponsored for the second time by the online car-dealer Cazoo.
Westover is a British Thoroughbred racehorse. He showed promise as a two-year-old in 2021 when he won on his debut and then finished second in both the Haynes, Hanson and Clark Conditions Stakes and the Silver Tankard Stakes. In the following year he won the Sandown Classic Trial and ran third in the Epsom Derby before taking the Irish Derby by seven lengths.
Ralph Michael Beckett is a British racehorse trainer who specialises in training horses for Flat racing. He is based at Kimpton, Hampshire.