Robert Whearty

This season tells a story of gradual improvement. Whearty has won 24 races from 327 rides — roughly 1 in every 14 — and while that 7% win rate might not turn heads at first glance, it represents real progress. Last year the figure sat at 6%, and nudging those numbers upward when you're riding this frequently is harder than it sounds. With that volume of rides, small gains in percentage terms translate to meaningful extra winners across a season.

His most important professional relationship is with trainer Gavin Cromwell, with whom he has built a genuine record over time: 8 wins from 95 rides together, winning at around 1 in every 12. That kind of sustained partnership matters in racing — trainers don't keep booking the same jockey unless they trust what they see, and 95 rides is a serious level of commitment from Cromwell's yard.

Where Whearty really catches the eye is on normal ground conditions, where he wins 15 from 131 races — roughly 1 in every 9, an 11% clip that is meaningfully better than his overall average. That gap suggests he rides with particular confidence and timing when the track is at its fairest, rather than relying on soft or testing conditions to slow the field down to his horses' strengths.

Then there's Listowel. Three winners from just 9 rides at that track is a remarkable return — winning 1 in every 3 races at any course over a meaningful sample is the kind of figure that makes trainers sit up and take notice when entries are being planned. For a jockey still in the early stages of his career, having a course where the numbers look like that is a genuine asset. At 93 career winners and still improving season on season, Whearty looks like a jockey whose best years are comfortably ahead of him.