Patrick M O'Brien(5)

His most regular partnership is with trainer Dermot A McLoughlin, where he has ridden 76 times and won 4. That's a modest 1 in every 19, and on paper it doesn't leap off the page — but 76 rides with the same yard in four years of riding shows a relationship built on trust, the sort of steady alliance that tends to produce results as a young jockey matures.

Where O'Brien genuinely catches the eye is on wet ground. When the rain comes and the ground gets soft and holding, his record reads 4 wins from 24 races — roughly 1 in 6. That's more than double his overall win rate, and it suggests something real: either an instinct for the conditions, a softer pair of hands, or simply that the horses he rides find their best form in the mud. Whatever the reason, when the weather turns, he becomes a more interesting name on the racecard.

Then there's Galway. Three winners from 10 rides at one of Ireland's most famous and chaotic festival tracks is a 30% win rate — extraordinary by any measure. Galway is not an easy place to ride. The track is tight, the fields are big, and the atmosphere is unlike anywhere else in Irish racing. To win 3 from 10 there suggests O'Brien either thrives under pressure or simply knows the track well enough to use it. Either way, those numbers are the kind that stick in a punter's memory.

He is still young, still claiming, and still climbing. But the improvement from last season to this one — nearly doubling his win rate — tells you something is clicking. O'Brien is worth keeping an eye on.