This season, though, has been a tougher grind than usual. Ryan has ridden 424 times and come away with 20 winners — that's roughly 1 in every 21 races, or a 5% win rate. To put that in perspective, last year he was winning at 7%, so the current campaign represents a noticeable dip. Whether that's down to the horses he's been put on, a run of bad luck, or something he's working to iron out in his riding, a drop like that is the kind of thing a jockey notices. It matters. Over that volume of rides, the difference between 5% and 7% is around eight or nine extra winners — and winners are everything in this game.
His most consistent working relationship is with trainer Jack W Davison, and it's one worth paying attention to. Ryan has ridden 97 times for Davison and come back with 8 winners — winning around 1 in every 12 races for the yard. That's noticeably better than his overall average this season, which suggests the partnership is built on something real: trust, communication, and horses that suit the way Ryan rides. When a trainer keeps putting the same jockey up nearly a hundred times, it's not habit — it's confidence.
The track where Ryan looks most dangerous right now is Roscommon. He has ridden 17 horses there and won on 4 of them — that's nearly 1 in every 4 rides, a win rate more than four times better than his season average. That kind of record at a specific course is rarely an accident. It could be that the track suits a style he's particularly good at, or simply that he knows it well enough to find a way when others can't. Either way, if you ever find yourself watching racing at Roscommon and James Ryan's name is in the racecard, that's a detail worth noticing.
| Course | Races | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dundalk | 113 | 4 | 3.5% |
| The Curragh | 53 | 3 | 5.7% |
| Leopardstown | 31 | 1 | 3.2% |
| Naas | 29 | 1 | 3.4% |
| Navan | 28 | 0 | 0% |
| Gowran Park | 26 | 1 | 3.8% |
| Fairyhouse | 22 | 0 | 0% |
| Cork | 20 | 1 | 5% |
| Roscommon | 17 | 4 | 23.5% |
| Bellewstown | 16 | 0 | 0% |
| Down Royal | 12 | 2 | 16.7% |
| Ballinrobe | 10 | 1 | 10% |
| Limerick | 10 | 0 | 0% |
| Tipperary | 8 | 1 | 12.5% |
| Galway | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Sligo | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Listowel | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| Newcastle | 3 | 1 | 33.3% |
| Tramore | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Killarney | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Newmarket | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Goodwood | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Haydock Park | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Thurles | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Laytown | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| York | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Sandown Park | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Ascot | 1 | 0 | 0% |