Dougie Costello

This season, Costello has ridden 22 winners from 279 rides — that's roughly 1 in every 13 races, an 8% win rate that puts him in the working pack of professional jockeys grinding out results week after week. It's not a headline number, but 279 rides in a single season means trainers across the country are picking up the phone and asking for him. Volume like that is earned, not given.

His most consistent partnership is with trainer Steph Hollinshead, though the numbers here are modest — 3 wins from 63 rides together, which works out to roughly 1 in every 21. That's a low conversion rate on its own, but the sheer number of rides suggests a genuine working relationship built on trust rather than just the occasional booking when a better name isn't available.

The most striking number in Costello's record is at Newmarket, one of Britain's most prestigious and demanding tracks. Seven winners from 29 rides there means he's winning roughly 1 in every 4 races at a course where the long, flat straight offers no hiding place for jockey or horse — every decision is exposed. Newmarket sorts out riders quickly, and the fact that Costello has a noticeably higher win rate there than his season average suggests he reads that track particularly well and arrives prepared.

At 137 career winners and still only four years in, the trajectory is encouraging. The next step — converting more of those 279 annual rides into victories and pushing that win rate closer to 1 in 10 — is what will separate a reliable journeyman from a jockey who starts attracting the bigger yards and the bigger days.