Everyone knows that a jockey plays a vital role in horse racing. There are various horses around the world. Each horse juvenile has its own abilities. A jockey’s responsibility is to handle the speedy horse while sitting on the back. It’s extremely subjective to measure the success of jockeys. The long or evolved history of horse racing makes it difficult to compare jockeys from various eras or from other continents.

Meet World’s Best Jockeys of all Time in Horse Racing

Here the top 10 jockeys in the history of horse racing:

1) Bill Shoemaker

Bill Shoemaker is one of the most known jockeys in the history of horse racing. In the age of 18, he won his first horse race. William “Bill” Shoemaker would win 8,882 more before retiring 41 years later. Kentucky Derby was a successful field for Shoemaker in which he rode 24 times and won four: 1955, 1959, 1965, and 1986. He achieved his last victory at the age of 54.

He showed his riding skills during 1957, 1959, 1962, 1967, and 1975 and won the Belmont Stakes five times. After the win of Belmont Stakes, he also won the Preakness in 1963 and 1967. Annually he earned more than $2 million from 1957 and he finally retired 1989. After getting the retirement he starts working as a trainer.

2) Laffit Pincay Jr.

Laffit Pincay Jr. received a life-altering advice in the age of 12 years. According to Mr. Charlie, he was too small to become a professional baseball player. He advised by Mr. Charlie to ride a horse and become a jockey. He gets the consideration of Fred W. Hooper a top horseman and started competing in his homeland, Panama. They request to come to America pursue the American Dream. He gets successful and able to achieve eight successful wins from 11 races at Arlington Park. As a fantastic jockey, Pincay was going on to triumph the Eclipse Award in 1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, and 1985.

In 1975, he was admitted into the National Museum of Racing or Hall of Fame. The well-skilled horse master retired in 2003 as racing’s dominant jockey with 9,530 career victories.

3) Lester Piggott

A retired English professional jockey Lester Piggott was born on November 5, 1935, in Wantage, Berkshire, England. He was the world’s leading jockeys in Thoroughbred flat racing. During 1960, 1964–71, and 1981–82 he was 11 times British riding champion. Piggott’s family was also associated with the turf and he started his riding at 12.

He achieved remarkable wins in 1954, 1957, 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1977, and 1983. He won St. Leger eight times during 1960, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1984. In addition to this, 1957, 1968, 1970, 1985, and 1992 were the most successful years for Lester in which he won the 2,000 Guineas five times.

He rode Nijinsky and manages to himself to obtain the victory as the winner of the English Triple Crown. And He participated in various races in France as well as Ireland and won great classic races. He becomes a horse trainer after a successful horse riding career.

4) Eddie Arcaro

Everyone knows about Eddie Arcaro in horse racing. He was born on February 19, 1916. The birthplace of Arcaro was Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. He became the first rider who rides five Kentucky Derby winners. Along with it he was also two time U.S. Triple Crown champion.

In his career, he won 4,779 races or 549 stakes events. He earned a lot from his career which was more than $30,000,000 in purses. He also makes himself to became the third jockey on Feb. 20, 1958, to achieve 4,000 victories.

Moving to his career he won five times the Kentucky Derby in 1938, 1941, 1945, 1948 and 1952. He also won six times in the Preakness in 1941, 1948, 1950–51, 1955 and1957. In a single season, Eddie Arcaro made a record of $645,145 earned by one horse.

5) Pat Day

An American jockey was born on Oct. 13, 1953. Pat Day’s birthplace is in Brush, Colorado, United States. In the Breeders’ Cup Day was able to score 12 wins. He earns more than $23 million and retired as the leading money-winner. Summer Squall, Tabasco Cat is some Day’s most important mounts. Apart from this Pat day include some more memorable wins in his winning list like Florida Derby, Hollywood Gold Cup, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Travers Stakes, Del Mar Handicap, Blue Grass Stakes and Kentucky Oaks.

6) Kent Desormeaux

Kent Jason Desormeaux was born on 27 February 1970 in Maurice, Louisiana, United States. He started his working as an learner jockey at the Evangeline Downs, Louisiana.

By winning 598 wins he made the United States record for most races achiever in a single year in 1989. He scored three victories on the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Moreover, Desormeaux also got a single win on the Belmont Stakes. He scores his first victory on July 13, 1986, when he rode Miss Tavern. Kent Jason Desormeaux scored his second Kentucky Derby in 2000.

7) Jerry Bailey

Jerry D. Bailey is an American Hall of Fame jockey who born on 29 August 1957 in Dallas, Texas, United States. Bailey began his riding career at Sunland Park. He rode a horse namely as Fetch and get his first win at the age of 17. Jerry D. Bailey gained a considerable success around the country before making a rising star on the New York state circuit. He scored his first victory at Kentucky Derby in 1993 along with Sea Hero. After two years he was admitted into the National Racing Hall of Fame. Jerry D. Bailey recorded his milestone by the winning of 5,000th career victories. He earned a total of $296,104,129 and on Jan. 28, 2006 he got retired.

8) Chris McCarron

Chris McCarron is a retired American famous jockey from Boston. He was born on March 27, 1955. In 1974 he started riding and due to the professional skills, he won the Eclipse Award. In the Breeders’ Cup, he scored nine wins. He was also able to get best results from Preakness Stakes, Kentucky Derby, and Belmont Stakes and won each event twice.

The other notable wins of Chris McCarron are the Del Mar Oaks, San Bernardino Handicap, Arlington Million, Fantasy Stakes, Haskell Invitational, Santa Anita Derby, San Clemente Handicap, Clement L. Hirsch Handicap, San Felipe Stakesm, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Del Mar Debutante Stakes, and Japan Cup. In 2002 he retired from horse racing with 7,141 memorable wins and $263, 985,905 earnings.

9) Javier Castellano

Javier Caste Llano belongs to a horse racing family. So from his childhood racing is in blood. His father, uncle and his brother were also jockeys. Javier Caste llano moved to the United States of America to start his career. The crowd favorite Javier Caste Llano set a new record with $26,213,507 earnings in 2013. He recorded 315 wins by leading all the jockeys and able to earn $25,056,464. Caste llano exceeded his own past season earnings record and gets $28,120,767 and made it to a three-peat in 2015. According to his fantastic mounting, he was named the Eclipse Award winner as well as the Hall of Fame. He has thousands of wins on his record. In addition to this, he earned more than $6.4 million and become the hardest competitor.

10) Russell Baze

Russell Baze is also one of the favorite jockeys. In his career, he won 12,842 races and became the most successful jockey as compare to any jockey in North American racing history. This crowd favorite jockey was born on 7 August 1958 in Vancouver, Canada. The Canadian boy began his professional riding career in 1974. His father was also a jockey and he achieved his first success on Oct. 28. With 10,000 career races win he became the first North American rider on Feb. 1, 2008. Russell Baze led all jockeys and wins 13 times in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014. In the time span of 13 years, Baze scored more than 400 races. But 1995 was the successful year for him in which got his highest career score by winning 448 races.

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