Top 10 Irish Jockeys of All Time

Horse racing isn’t just a sport in Ireland — it’s woven into the country’s identity in a way that’s hard to explain to anyone who didn’t grow up near a racecourse or a stud farm. And over the past century, Ireland has produced a disproportionate share of the world’s finest jockeys, in both flat and National Hunt racing.

This list covers the ten greatest Irish jockeys of all time, ranked on career achievement, major titles won, longevity, and the lasting mark each left on the sport. We’ve covered both disciplines — jump racing and flat — because Irish excellence spans both, and limiting this to one would leave out half the story.

The ten jockeys below are not ranked by popularity. They’re ranked on results.

How We Compiled This List

No ranking like this is entirely without debate, but we applied consistent criteria to keep it grounded:

• Major titles won — Champion Jockey titles (British and Irish), Grade 1 and Group 1 victories, and the biggest races in the calendar: the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Epsom Derby, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and Irish Classics.
• Longevity — a great season doesn’t make a great career. We weighted sustained excellence over time.
• Historical impact — did this jockey change how the sport is perceived, or open doors that hadn’t existed before?
• Both codes — flat and jump jockeys are assessed within their disciplines. Direct comparison between codes isn’t useful; dominance within a code is.

One note on the list: Fran Berry and Frank Berry are two distinct people who are frequently confused in published rankings online. We have treated them separately. Only Fran Berry appears here; Frank Berry — the legendary ten-time Irish jump champion of the 1960s and 70s — is acknowledged in the relevant section.

Quick Career Comparison

The 10 Greatest Irish Jockeys of All Time

1. AP McCoy — The Standard No One Has Matched

Born: May 4, 1974, Moneyglass, County Antrim Discipline: National Hunt (Jump Racing) Career: 1994–2015

Anthony Peter McCoy is, by most measures, the greatest jump jockey who ever lived — Irish or otherwise. Over a 21-year professional career, he rode 4,358 winners, a figure that surpassed every record that existed before him. More remarkably, he was British Champion Jockey for 20 consecutive seasons — a run of dominance that has no equivalent in any major sport.

McCoy began as an apprentice at Jim Bolger’s yard in County Kilkenny, winning his first race on Legal Steps in 1992 as a teenager. He moved to Britain where he became stable jockey for trainer Martin Pipe, a partnership that rewired what ambition looked like in jump racing. McCoy’s approach was relentless: he rode injured, rode in circumstances other jockeys would decline, and set targets that seemed unreachable until he reached them. In 2001, he became the first jump jockey to ride 100 winners in a season and went on to break his own record multiple times.

The Grand National had been a glaring gap in his CV for 15 years. His 2010 victory on Don’t Push It, which reduced him to tears on live television, completed the set. His single Cheltenham Gold Cup — aboard Synchronised in 2012 — came with the kind of emotion that only accumulates over two decades of near-misses.

He was knighted in 2016. In 2010, he became the first jockey to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: McCoy’s single Cheltenham Gold Cup is the one statistical footnote that surprises people given his dominance elsewhere. But the 20 consecutive titles, 4,358 winners, and the sustained physical toll of riding injured throughout a career that long place him beyond the reach of any straightforward critique.

2. Ruby Walsh — The Greatest Festival Jockey of Any Era

Born: May 14, 1979, Kill, County Kildare Discipline: National Hunt (Jump Racing) Career: 1995–2019

Where AP McCoy defined championship consistency, Ruby Walsh defined Championship Week. His record at the Cheltenham Festival is unmatched in the event’s history: 59 winners, a figure so far ahead of the next-best that it will likely stand for decades. He was awarded the Leading Rider prize at Cheltenham 11 times.

Walsh is the son of Ted Walsh — himself a champion amateur rider and trainer — and the brother of jockey Katie Walsh. He won his first Irish amateur title in 1996/97, turned professional, and spent the bulk of his career as stable jockey to trainer Willie Mullins, a partnership that produced a near-continuous stream of major winners.

He won the Grand National twice — on Papillon in 2000, trained by his father, and on Hedgehunter in 2005. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice aboard Kauto Star (2007 and 2009), and he and Kauto Star formed one of the most celebrated horse-jockey partnerships in jump racing history. He also won multiple Champion Hurdles and King George VI Chases across his career.

Walsh retired on May 1, 2019 — an announcement made with characteristic directness, with immediate effect.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Walsh vs McCoy is the most argued split in Irish racing debate. McCoy’s overall numbers are higher. Walsh’s Festival record is untouchable. There is a reasonable case for either at #1 — McCoy edges this ranking based on career volume and consecutive championships, but neither man has much to be modest about.

3. Mick Kinane — Thirty-Four Years Without Wasting a Moment

Born: June 22, 1959, Cashel, County Tipperary Discipline: Flat Racing Career: 1975–2009

Michael “Mick” Kinane rode professionally for 34 years and spent most of them near the top of the sport. He came from a racing family — his father Christy Kinane rode the legendary Monksfield to win the Champion Hurdle — and Mick inherited both the ability and the work ethic.

He won the Irish Flat Championship 13 times, a number that reflects not just talent but consistency across three and a half decades. He was noted for a tactical intelligence that bordered on instinctive: a jockey who seemed to know what was going to happen on the track before it did.

His career high point came at the very end of it. In 2009, aged 49, he rode Sea The Stars — widely considered one of the greatest racehorses in history — to six consecutive Group 1 victories in a single season: the 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby, Eclipse Stakes, Juddmonte International Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He had already won the Arc previously and the Melbourne Cup aboard Vintage Crop in 1993 (trained by Dermot Weld — the first European-trained winner of the race).

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Kinane rarely courted attention and his reputation in Ireland is arguably undersold compared to his actual achievement. Ending a 34-year career as the jockey of the best horse many experts had ever seen is a storybook conclusion — and it was entirely deserved.

4. Pat Eddery — Eleven Titles, No Shortcuts

Born: March 18, 1952, Newbridge, County Kildare Died: November 10, 2015 Discipline: Flat Racing Career: 1967–2003

Pat Eddery won the British Flat Jockeys’ Championship 11 times, which places him second only to Sir Gordon Richards in the history of British flat racing. He was Champion Jockey four consecutive years from 1974 to 1977 and returned to win it again across multiple periods over the following two decades — a career arc that demonstrated adaptability as well as raw ability.

He apprenticed in Ireland before moving to England in the late 1960s, rising through the yards of Geoffrey Barling and Peter Walwyn, for whom he won his first two Classic races. He later became retained jockey to Robert Sangster’s powerful operation, and later Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms — the association that brought him Dancing Brave and one of the most dominant single-season performances by any horse in European racing history. In 1986, he won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe aboard Dancing Brave.

He won the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe multiple times across his career [VERIFY: specific Derby winners and total Arc count for full accuracy].

His death in November 2015 was widely mourned in British and Irish racing. He was 63.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Eddery rode in an era of fierce competition on the British flat — Piggott, Carson, Dunlop, Dettori in his later years — and still won 11 championships. The consistency is the achievement, not any single race.

5. Rachael Blackmore — History, Properly Made

Born: July 11, 1989, Killenaule, County Tipperary Discipline: National Hunt (Jump Racing) Career: 2011–present

Rachael Blackmore belongs on this list because of what she has actually won, not as a token of progress. She is a genuinely elite National Hunt jockey who happens to have rewritten what participation looks like in a sport that was, for most of its history, almost exclusively male.

She turned professional in 2015 after riding 11 point-to-point winners and seven amateur wins. In 2017, she became the first woman to win the Irish Conditional Riders’ Championship. In 2021, she became the first woman in the history of the Cheltenham Festival to win the Leading Rider award — finishing the week with six winners. That same year, she rode Minella Times to win the Grand National — the first female jockey to win the race in its near-200-year history. She also won the Champion Hurdle that week with Honeysuckle, trained by Henry de Bromhead.

She is the stable jockey for Henry de Bromhead, one of Ireland’s leading trainers, and continues to compete at the highest level.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Blackmore is mid-career. Where she ultimately ranks in this list will depend on what comes next. Placed here at #5, she is already among the most decorated active jump jockeys in Europe, and her best years may still be ahead.

6. Charlie Swan — Nine Titles and Istabraq

Born: January 20, 1968, Cloughjordan, County Tipperary Discipline: National Hunt (Jump Racing) Career: 1985–2002

Charlie Swan won the Irish National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship nine consecutive times, from 1989/90 to 1997/98 — not seven, as is sometimes cited. He set an Irish record for wins in a single season with 147 winners in 1995/96, a mark that still stands. He was the leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival twice, and he rode more than 1,000 winners over his career.

His name is permanently linked to one horse: Istabraq, trained by Aidan O’Brien and owned by J.P. McManus. Swan and Istabraq won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in three consecutive years — 1998, 1999, and 2000 — a performance of sustained dominance that placed the horse in the conversation for the greatest hurdler of all time. A fourth Champion Hurdle in 2001 was prevented when the Cheltenham Festival was cancelled due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

After retiring from the saddle in 2002, Swan moved into training, based in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Swan’s nine consecutive championships in Ireland would define most careers on their own. The Istabraq years elevated him further. His retirement at the height of his powers was his own decision, which perhaps kept him from the sheer volume numbers that McCoy and Walsh accumulated.

7. Kieren Fallon — Six Titles, Uncommon Talent

Born: February 22, 1965, Crusheen, County Clare Discipline: Flat Racing Career: 1984–2016

Kieren Fallon — not “Aidan Fallon” or “Jimmy Fallon” as he is sometimes misnamed in published rankings — won the British Flat Racing Championship six times (1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003). He arrived at Kevin Prendergast’s Irish stable as a teenager having barely ridden before, spent several years learning his craft, and broke through in Britain to become one of the most naturally gifted flat jockeys of his generation.

He became stable jockey to Sir Henry Cecil at Warren Place in Newmarket — one of the most sought-after positions in British racing — and immediately won the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks in 1997. His partnership with Cecil produced multiple Classic winners. He also won the Epsom Derby three times — with Oath (1999), Kris Kin (2003), and North Light (2004) — a record matched by few flat jockeys of the modern era.

His career was complicated by a race-fixing investigation and periods of controversy that disrupted its continuity, but his ability on a horse was never in question. His son Cieren Fallon was named champion apprentice jockey in Britain in 2019.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Fallon’s raw ability was exceptional — most observers who watched him at his best considered him a once-in-a-generation talent. His career was interrupted more than it needed to be by circumstances off the track, which makes his six championships all the more striking as an achievement of concentrated excellence.

8. Johnny Murtagh — Ireland’s Complete Flat Jockey

Born: May 14, 1970, Bohermeen, County Meath Discipline: Flat Racing Career: 1989–2012

Johnny Murtagh won the Irish Flat Jockeys’ Championship five times and every major race the European flat calendar had to offer. He won all of the Irish Classics, multiple Royal Ascot Group 1 races, the Epsom Derby, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Sinndar in 2000, trained by John Oxx.

He rode 18 Group 1 victories for the Aga Khan during his long stint at John Oxx’s stable, and later became associated with Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle operation. He was a precise, tactical rider — one who excelled at timing a challenge on big-field days at tracks like Epsom and the Curragh, where reading a race matters as much as riding skill.

Murtagh transitioned to training after retirement in 2012 and has handled horses at his base in County Kildare since.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Murtagh is sometimes overlooked in discussions of great Irish flat jockeys, perhaps because Kinane, Eddery, and Fallon dominate the conversation. His five Irish championships and Arc win give him a legitimate claim higher on this list than some rankings place him.

9. Paul Carberry — The Natural

Born: February 9, 1974, Ratoath, County Meath Discipline: National Hunt (Jump Racing) Career: 1993–2016

Paul Carberry came from racing royalty — his father Tommy Carberry won the Grand National on L’Escargot (1975) and two Cheltenham Gold Cups, and his sister Nina Carberry is a celebrated amateur National Hunt jockey. Paul surpassed them all professionally.

He won the Grand National in 1999 on Bobbyjo, trained by his father, at odds of 10/1. He was Irish Champion Jump Jockey in 2001/02 and 2002/03. He rode 39 Grade 1 winners across his career, working primarily with trainer Noel Meade and later others across the Irish circuit. In September 1994, he completed a remarkable hat-trick at Galway — riding winners on the flat, over hurdles, and over fences at the same meeting.

A note on Harchibald: Carberry’s association with Harchibald is frequently cited as a Champion Hurdle win. It was not. At the 2005 Champion Hurdle, Carberry appeared to have the race won on Harchibald, sitting motionless with a seemingly enormous lead approaching the final fence — before Hardy Eustace caught and passed them on the run-in. It is one of the most discussed riding decisions in Cheltenham history and Carberry has addressed it many times since. Harchibald was second.

He retired in August 2016 following a leg injury sustained at Listowel in September 2015.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: Carberry had the natural feel on a horse that some jockeys spend entire careers chasing and never find. His achievements are significant. Whether the Harchibald ride cost him a Champion Hurdle that would have elevated this entry remains one of Irish racing’s great what-ifs.

10. Fran Berry — Solid Career, Debatable All-Time Inclusion

Born: 1981 (County Tipperary) Discipline: Flat Racing Career: 1999–2019

A quick but important clarification: Fran Berry and Frank Berry are not the same person. Frank Berry — a ten-time Irish jump racing champion in the 1960s and 70s who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup aboard Glencaraig Lady in 1972 — was a different jockey entirely and is widely considered among the greatest Irish jump jockeys of the twentieth century. He is now a senior bloodstock agent at Coolmore.

Fran Berry is a flat jockey who spent much of his career based in Ireland and England. He started as a National Hunt rider, won the Coral Cup at Cheltenham in 1999, and later switched to flat racing. He served as second jockey at John Oxx’s stable from 2002 until 2009 and then as lead jockey from 2010, where he benefited from riding Aga Khan-owned horses in Ireland and internationally. He worked as stable jockey to Ralph Beckett in Britain from 2016 before leaving by mutual consent in 2017. He was forced to retire in 2019 following spinal injuries sustained in a fall at Wolverhampton in January of that year.

He rode over 1,000 flat wins in Ireland and Britain, plus a handful of jump winners. He was a reliable professional jockey rather than a dominant force in his discipline.

Career Highlights

Honest assessment: This is the most debatable inclusion on the list. Fran Berry had a solid and respectable career, but a credible argument exists for placing Frank Berry, Christy Roche (five-time Irish champion, 1984 Epsom Derby winner), or Tommy Carberry in this slot for a true all-time ranking. We have kept Berry here while flagging that the tenth position is genuinely open to debate.

What Made Irish Jockeys So Dominant?

Ireland’s extraordinary output of world-class jockeys is not accidental. Several overlapping factors explain it.

The infrastructure. Ireland has more racehorses per capita than almost any country on earth. Kildare, Tipperary, and Galway are not just places — they are ecosystems built around equine sport, with stud farms, training yards, and point-to-point circuits providing a pathway that exists nowhere else in quite the same form.

Point-to-point racing. The point-to-point circuit — amateur steeplechasing run by local hunts — functions as an unofficial farm system for professional jockeys. Rachael Blackmore rode 11 point-to-points before turning professional. Ruby Walsh, Paul Carberry, and countless others developed their instincts on that circuit before they ever sat in a professional parade ring.

Family lines. The pattern of jockey families is striking on this list alone: the Walsh family (Ted, Ruby, Katie), the Carberry family (Tommy, Paul, Nina). Racing knowledge, riding feel, and career pathway advice pass through these families in ways that accelerate development.

Competition at home. Irish racing is genuinely competitive at every level. Jockeys who come through the Irish system have been tested regularly against strong fields before they move to Britain or further afield.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the greatest Irish jockey of all time?

AP McCoy holds the strongest statistical case — 4,358 career winners and 20 consecutive British Champion Jockey titles are unmatched in jump racing history. Ruby Walsh’s 59 Cheltenham Festival victories and 11 Leading Rider awards represent the greatest record at the sport’s most prestigious event. Both cases are legitimate; most analysts give the overall edge to McCoy on the basis of career volume and consistency.

Who was the first female jockey to win the Grand National?

Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National in April 2021, riding Minella Times for trainer Henry de Bromhead. She also became the first woman to be named Leading Rider at the Cheltenham Festival the same year, making 2021 a historic season by any measure.

How many Champion Hurdles did Charlie Swan win?

Charlie Swan won the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle three times — in 1998, 1999, and 2000 — all aboard the outstanding hurdler Istabraq, trained by Aidan O’Brien. A fourth consecutive Champion Hurdle attempt was prevented when the 2001 Cheltenham Festival was cancelled due to the UK foot-and-mouth outbreak.

How many British Champion Jockey titles did AP McCoy win?

AP McCoy won the British Champion Jockey title for 20 consecutive seasons, from 1995/96 to 2014/15 — every season of his professional career. This record is without parallel in the sport. He was knighted in 2016 and won BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2010, the first jockey to receive that award.

Are Fran Berry and Frank Berry the same person?

No. They are two separate jockeys. Frank Berry was the ten-time Irish jump racing champion jockey in the 1960s and 70s who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Glencaraig Lady in 1972. Fran Berry is a flat jockey born in 1981 who rode for John Oxx’s stable and retired in 2019 after a serious fall injury. The two are frequently and incorrectly merged in published rankings.

What is Ruby Walsh’s Cheltenham Festival record?

Ruby Walsh rode 59 winners at the Cheltenham Festival — the highest total in the event’s history by a considerable margin. He was named Leading Rider (top jockey) at the Festival 11 times. His most celebrated Festival partnership was with the dual Gold Cup winner Kauto Star, trained by Paul Nicholls, whom he rode to victory in 2007 and 2009.

Which Irish jockey won the most Epsom Derbies?

Among Irish jockeys, Kieren Fallon won the Epsom Derby three times — on Oath (1999), Kris Kin (2003), and North Light (2004). Pat Eddery also won it multiple times including Grundy (1975) and Golden Fleece (1982). Mick Kinane rode Sea The Stars to win the 2009 Derby as part of the horse’s historic six-Group-1 season.