Frankie Dettori has been crowned the 2019 LONGINES World’s Best Jockey for consecutive years winning the prestigious award in 2018 – he is the first jockey ever to achieve this.
The champion jockey picked up the award at a presentation during a gala dinner at The Convention Centre in Hong Kong on Friday, ahead of the weekend’s LONGINES Hong Kong International Races.
The LONGINES World’s Best Jockey Award was established five years ago by LONGINES and the International Federation of Horse Racing to quantitatively recognise a jockey as the best among his or her global peers. It marked the first time a rider was honoured in such a way.
The awarding of the LONGINES World’s Best Jockey is based upon performances in the 100 highest-rated Group 1 and Grade 1 races as established for the year by the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings Committee. The scoring incorporates races from 1 December of the previous year until 30 November of the current year and jockeys earn points for finishing in the top three, accruing 12 points for a win, six points for placing second, and four points for placing third.
A dominant force throughout the year, Dettori won eight of the world’s Top 100 Group or Grade 1 races aboard seven different horses. His qualifying victories came in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Crystal Ocean), Gold Cup (Stradivarius), Grand Prix de Saint‐Cloud (Coronet), Coral-Eclipse (Enable), King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Enable), Qatar Sussex Stakes (Too Darn Hot), William Hill St Leger Stakes (Logician), and QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (Star Catcher).
The scoring process rewards jockeys for finishing in the top three, giving Dettori a total of 102 points on the year. Second place went to Zac Purton, who finished with 88 points, while Hugh Bowman, the 2017 LONGINES World’s Best Jockey, was third with 86 points.
Speaking about the award and success of the past year, Dettori said “It has been an amazing few years. There is pressure, but I love what I do, and I get to ride some remarkable horses. Enable especially has meant so much to me. She has taken emotionally to places that no other horses have ever. She has got presence and she is loved by everyone. She has been a superstar for three years”
“The burning ambition of winning big races is always there, I guess that is what keeps me going, I am lucky that I am lucky to ride so many good horses. My highlight of the year was winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes with Crystal Ocean it was a battle between two wonderful horses”.
He reminded everyone that he turns 49 next week and his goals for 2020 are “to stay healthy and continue to ride the good horses – I will carry on”.
Dettori now can be classed as the leading jockey in the world claiming the award for the third time – 2015, 2018 and 2019. Ryan Moore is a two-time winner of the Longines World’s Best Jockey award, which was established in 2014. Moore won in the inaugural year and in 2016 with Hugh Bowman taking the honour in 2017.
