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Sam Twiston-Davies

admin February 4, 2026

Born on October 15, 1992 in Naunton, Gloucestershire, Sam Twiston-Davies is the elder son of trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, who, since the start of the 2025/26 National Hunt season, has held a joint licence with his younger son, William. He took his first ride under Rules on On Spec, trained by his father, in an amateur riders’ handicap at Ludlow on January 15, 2009 and rode his first winner, Baby Run, also trained by Twiston-Davies Snr., in a hunters’ chase at the same course on February 18, 2009. Just over a year later, on March 19, 2010, the same horse provided him with his first high-profile winner when justifying favouritism in the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

In his first season as a conditional jockey, 2010/11, Twiston-Davies rode 59 winners to win the conditional jockeys’ championship. He rode over 100 winners in a season for the first time in 2013/14 and towards the end of that season was announced as stable jockey to Paul Nicholls in Ditcheat, Somerset from the start of 2014/15 season, replacing Darryl Jacob. Twiston-Davies spent four years as stable jockey to Nicholls, but at the start of the 2018/19 season announced that he would become a freelance jockey, having been succeeded at Ditcheat by Harry Cobden.

Twiston-Davies enjoyed his most successful season, numerically and financially, in 2014/15, when he rode 145 winners – including Dodging Bullets, trained by Nicholls, in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival – and amassed nearly £2.5 million in prize money. At the time of writing, all told, he has eight Festival winners and 15 Grade 1 winners to his name, the most recent of which was Potters Charm, trained by his father, in the Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day 2024.

On June 23, 2019, Twiston-Davies reached the milestone of 1,000 career winners on Nordican Bleue, trained by Richard Newland, in a mares’ novice hurdle at Southwell. At that time, he said, “It seems only yesterday that I was playing starters orders with [younger brother] Willy! It’s a great a achievement and I feel really lucky to have hit the landmark.” On Boxing Day that year, he won the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Nicholls’ apparent second-string, Clan Des Obeaux.

More recently, in January 2026, Cobden was announced as the retained rider for leading owner John ‘J.P.’ McManus, thereby officially vacating his position as Nicholls’ stable jockey at the end of the season. Nicholls has already announced that Twiston-Davies is one of the jockeys who will benefit from the new arrangement.

Jonathan Burke

admin February 4, 2026

Born Glengoura, Curraglass, County Cork on December 23, 1995, Jonathan Burke is the son of Mallow trainer Liam Burke. He began his riding career as a 16-year-old amateur, opening his account on Trendy Gift, owned and trained by his father, in a National Hunt Flat Race at Cork on April 9, 2012. Two years later, on April 29, 2014, with a dozen or so winners to his name, he won the valuable Goffs Land Rover Bumper on Very Much So, trained by Willie Mullins.

Shortly afterwards, Burke became a conditional jockey, two winners shy of the 20 required for his 7lb claim to be reduced to 5lb. On June 9, 2014, he rode his first winner as a professional, Golden Kite, trained by Adrian Maguire, in the Connact National Handicap Chase at Roscommon. Remarkably, later that year, Burke – an 18-year-old, still claiming 5lb – was offered the job as retained jockey to leading owners Ann and Alan Potts. He repaid the Potts’ faith in him by riding three high-profile winners before the end of 2014, Sizing Europe in the Champion Chase at Gowran Park, Shanahan’s Turn in the Florida Pearl Novice Chase at Punchestown and his first Grade 1 winner, Sizing John, in the Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas.

Burke would ride one more Grade 1 winner in the Potts’ colours, Sizing Granite in the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on April 11, 2015 but, in November 2016, with an increasing number of their horses based in England, he brought the partnership to an end “to explore other opportunities”. After a spell back in the freelance ranks, he became stable jockey to Charlie Longsdon in Over Norton, Oxfordshire, Tom George in Slad, Gloucestershire and, since April 2024, to Fergal O’Brien

in Withington, Gloucestershire.

Since crossing the Irish Sea, Burke has added three more winners to his Grade 1 tally, namely Not So Sleepy, trained by Hughie Morrison, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and Crambo, trained by O’Brien, in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in both 2023 and 2024. He enjoyed his most successful season on British soil, so far, in 2024/25, when he rode 76 winners and collected just shy of £1.2 million in prize money for connections. Looking ahead, Burke once said, “You look at some jockeys and they’re going on until they are 42, 43, 44. Again, you need a bit of luck with injuries, but I want to go as far as I can.”

Jason Hart

admin February 4, 2026

Born in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders, on September 28, 1994, Jason Hart began riding out for Mark Johnston in Middleham, North Yorkshire as a 15-year-old, having previously competed in pony racing. He took his first ever ride on Elusive Fame, trained by Johnston, in a handicap at Southwell on February 1, 2011. Elusive Fame finished second, beaten a neck, but that was the closest Hart ever came to riding a winner while apprenticed to Johnston. Over the next three months, he was beaten a further six times on the same horse, including in a selling handicap at Hamilton, before joining Declan Carroll in nearby Malton.

Carroll provided Hart with his first winner under Rules, Spice Bar, in a handicap at Ripon on August 30, 2011. Reflecting on his inugural victory, he said, “I hadn’t been there for long and it was nice for him [Carroll] to put me on something he thought had a really good chance.” Hart rode seven winners in 2011, but increased his seasonal tally to 18 in 2012 and, again, to 51 in 2013, which was sufficient to win the Apprentice Jockeys Championship. Reflecting on his achievement, he said, “I’m really pleased with the way the final week went, because I’ve had four winners, which has pushed me through the half-century, which was a target of mine.”

Hart rode out his claim in 2014 but, on June 26, 2015, his mount, Dark War, fell, fatally, when in the lead in a six-furlong handicap at Doncaster. He ruptured both the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his knee and was out of action for seven months. Thus, Hart rode just 23 winners in 2015 and 37 in 2016, although the latter total did include his first Pattern winner, Ridge Ranger, trained by Eric Alston, in the Group 3 Summer Stales at York on July 8, 2016.

Hart rode his first Royal Ascot winner, Highfield Princess, trained by John Quinn, in the Buckingham Palace Stakes on June 17, 2021. That year, he passed the milestone of 100+ winners for the first time. He would subsequently form a profitable association with Highfield Princess, on whom he won the Prix Maurice de Gheest, Nunthorpe Stakes and Flying Five Stakes in 2022 and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 2023.

Hart reached the landmark of 1,000 career winners on Rhapsody, trained by William Haggas, in a fillies’ handicap at York at September 7, 2025. At that point, he said, “Becoming champion jockey is a burning desire, but it’s not easy and everyone else has the same aim. I’ll keep kicking and give it my best shot.”

Hector Crouch

admin February 4, 2026

Born on August 3, 1996, Hector Crouch was raised near Pulborough, West Sussex. He started riding out at a local pre-training yard, which looked after horses for Lower Beeding trainer Gary Moore, at weekends and during school holidays, before becoming apprenticed to Moore when he left school. Crouch rode his first winner, Whinging Willie, trained by Moore, in an apprentice handicap at Newbury on June 24, 2014. He later said of Moore, “Gary was phenomenal. He works twice as hard as any member of staff so to get noticed you had to work at least as hard as him. I went aged 14 and left aged 22, a year after I’d ridden out my claim.”

Crouch was also able to draw on the experience of stable jockey George Baker and three-time champion jockey Ryan Moore, son of Gary, when it came to advice on race-riding. In fact, it was Ryan Moore who arranged for him to ride for Satish Seemar in Dubai during the winter of 2015. Crouch said, “Satish Sheemar put me up in some Group races and I was claiming 5lb here at the time.”

Back in Britain, Crouch subsequently became second jockey to Clive Cox in Lambourn, Berkshire, behind Adam Kirby, whom he described as “a great horseman”. It was Cox who provided him with his first Pattern winner, Streamline, in the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes at Kempton on September 7, 2019, but it was not until 18 months or so later, when he formed a closer association with Ralph Beckett, who is based in Kimpton, Hampshire, that his career really began to flourish.

Beckett does not have a stable jockey but, at the time of writing, Crouch has ridden nearly as many winners for him as he has for Gary Moore and Clive Cox put together. Beckett also provided his first Group 1, and Classic, winner, You Got To Me, in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh on July 20, 2024. Of his achievement, he said, “To win a Group 1 and Classic at the same time was great. It’s hard enough to ride a Group One winner; there are plenty of jockeys who won’t ever do that…” That same year, he reached the milestone of 100 winners in a season for the first time on Almosh’her, trained by Charlie Fellowes, in a novice stakes race at Southwell on December 29. In 2025, Crouch increased his annual tally still further, to 157 winners.

Harry Cobden

admin February 4, 2026

Born in Lydford-on-Fosse, Somerset on November 5, 1998, Harry Cobden excelled at pony racing before graduating to point-to-points, winning the novice men’s title in that sphere in 2014/15. He rode his first winner under Rules, El Mondo, trained by Rachael Honeyball (née Green), in a hunters’ chase at Leicester on March 6, 2015. After two winners from three rides in 2014/15, the other one being Ulck Du Lin, trained by Paul Nicholls, in a handicap chase at Wincanton on April 19, 2015, Cobden became conditional jockey to Nicholls at Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset at the start of the 2015/16 season.

Cobden increased his seasonal tally to 30 winners in 2015/16 and, again, to 63 winners in 2016/17, including his first Grade 1 winner, Irving, trained by Nicholls, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on November 16, 2016. He rode our his claim on Diego Du Charmil, also trained by Nicholls, in the Scottish County Hurdle on February 4, 2017 and, to the surprise of no-one, was crowned champion conditional jockey at the end of the 2016/17.

By his own admission, “things did go a bit quiet” thereafter, but Cobden still managed to ride a then career-best 76 winners in 2017/18. His seasonal tally included his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Kilbricken Storm, trained by Colin Tizzard, in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle on March 16, 2018. Towards the end of the season, Cobden was offered the job as stable jockey to both Nicholls and Tizzard, but opted for the former, with whose yard he had been associated since his early teens.

On June 1, 2018, Cobden walked away after being unseated by Mick Thonic, trained by Tizzard, at the final fence in a handicap chase at Market Rasen, but was later hospitalised and found to have suffered a fracture of the C2 vertebra in his neck. He spent eight weeks in a neck brace and four months out altogether, thereby missing the summer jumps campaign. Nevertheless, the 2018/19 season yielded 109 winners, four of which were at Grade 1 level, all for Nicholls, including Clan Des Obeaux in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.

Fast forward to 2023/24 and Cobden rode 164 winners, becoming Champion Jockey for the first time. On October 14, 2025, he reached the milestone of 1,000 career winners on Indemnity, trained by Emma Lavelle, in a handicap hurdle at Market Rasen. The following January, it was announced that he would officially become the retained jockey for leading owner John McManus, in Britain and Ireland, from the start of the 2026/27 National Hunt season.

David Allan

admin February 4, 2026

David Allan was born in Irvine, North Ayrshire on July 11, 1982, but raised in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. Prior to attending the National Horseracing College in Doncaster, he had no experience of horses, but nonetheless successfully completed a 12-week foundation course in 1999. Of his time at the College, Allan later reflected, “I’d never sat on a horse until I got there. The college sent me to Jack Berry’s at Malton [North Yorkshire]. I had a lot of catching up to do and it turned out to be the best yard to catch up at. They had a lot of good horses and riders and I never learned so fast in my life.”

Allan rode his first winner, Peter’s Imp, trained by Alan Berry, son of Jack, in an apprentices’ handicap at Warwick on July 22, 2000. After riding just two winners in 2000 and 13 in 2001, he became apprenticed to Tim Easterby in Great Habton, North Yorkshire, where he has remained ever since. Fast forward to July 5, 2020 and Allan reached the milestone of 1,000 winners on British soil, courtesy of Turntable, trained by Chris Wall, in a handicap at Doncaster. He has also ridden with great success in India, where he has won no fewer than 34 Classics and has the distinction of being the most successful international jockey to ride on the subcontinent.

On October 21, 2023, Allan enjoyed the biggest win of his career when Art Power, trained by Easterby, sprang a 40/1 surprise in the British Champion Sprint Stakes at Ascot, rallying after being headed inside the final furlong to beat the favourite, Kinross, by a neck. Reflecting on his sole Group 1 winner, so far, Allan said at the time, “You don’t find them very easily. I have been at Tim’s now for 21 years and it is the first one we have found together. We had Winter Power [owned, like Art Power, by King Power Racing] win a Group 1, but it has been a long wait for me to get one from the yard itself.

For all his vast experience, Allan has often fallen foul on the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) for using the whip above the permitted level. In October 2025, for example, he was suspended for 42 days – nine of which were deferred for six months or 200 rides – after being found to have breached the whip rules in the previous six months.