J F Egan

This season he has ridden 26 winners from 224 races — roughly 1 in every 9, which works out at 12%. That might not sound dramatic until you compare it to where he was a year ago, when he was winning just 1 in every 25. To more than triple your win rate in a single season is not a small thing. It suggests a jockey who has found his feet and knows what he's doing out there.

The last two weeks have been even sharper. Two winners from 8 rides puts him at 25% — double his already-improved seasonal average — which is the kind of hot spell that often signals a jockey firing on all cylinders. Whether that continues is the question, but there's no doubt the form is there right now.

If you want to find Egan at his best, put him on fast, dry ground. He has won 9 from 44 races in those conditions — that's 1 in every 5, well above his usual rate, and suggests he has a real feel for riding when the pace is quick and the margins are tight. Leicester is another place to watch for him: 3 winners from just 5 runners there is a remarkable hit rate, and it hints at someone who reads that particular track well.

His most regular partnership is with trainer Dean Ivory, though it has been a patient one — 2 wins from 40 rides together, roughly 1 in 20. That's below his overall rate, and it's worth noting. But jockey-trainer relationships are built on loyalty and trust as much as results, and 40 rides together in four years suggests Ivory keeps coming back. At 82 career winners and still only four years in, Egan looks like a jockey whose best chapters are still ahead of him.