Keith Donoghue

The highlight of his career so far has been riding winners at the very top level — four Class 1 victories, which means the cream of British racing. Those wins have come at Huntingdon, Cheltenham, and Exeter. Cheltenham in particular is the sport's most celebrated stage, a place where careers are defined and reputations are made, so a winner there is no small thing.

His most important professional relationship is with trainer Gavin Cromwell. Together they have combined for 27 wins from 297 rides — again that 9% figure, which tells you this is a settled, consistent partnership rather than a flash-in-the-pan arrangement. When a jockey and trainer trust each other enough to share nearly 300 races, it says something real about the working relationship between their yards.

One thing that stands out when you dig into Donoghue's numbers is how well he rides when the weather turns nasty. On very wet or muddy ground — the kind of conditions most people would rather watch from under an umbrella — he wins at 16%, or 7 from 45 races. That is almost double his usual rate, which suggests he has a natural feel for how to ride in those conditions, keeping a horse balanced and patient when the ground is dragging at their legs. It's a genuinely useful skill and the sort of edge that trainers remember when rain is forecast.

The one note of caution is that his win rate has slipped from 14% last season to 9% this time around. That is a meaningful dip, from roughly 1 in 7 to 1 in 11, and it is the kind of thing he will want to address. Whether it reflects a tougher book of rides, a slight dip in form, or simply the natural ebb and flow of a competitive sport is hard to say — but with 238 career winners already in the bag at just four years in, there is plenty of reason to think the best is still to come.