THE biggest earning jockeys in the world was revealed last year – but you may not be familiar with those at the top.
Frankie Dettori, who has won more than 3,000 races during his illustrious career, was the only UK-based jockey to make the list of 50 as he came in well down in 37th place.
Japanese jockeys make up eight of the top ten highest earning jockeys in the world
PADettori was not even close to the top ten for the highest earning jockeys[/caption]
The No1 spot, from the figures compiled by OLGB, was filled by Japan’s Yutaka Take, who turned 54 this week, who has won more than 4,000 races at the time of writing.
As a result, the total amount earned from all of those race victories comes to a startling £573million, when the figures were compiled.
Of course, Take himself will only have received a fraction of that figure as the money is divided up between the owner, trainer and jockey.
Nevertheless though, it is safe to assume that generally speaking the more races a jockey wins the more likely they are to receive well-paid sponsorships and retainers.
Japanese jockeys make up all of the top four positions in the list, with Take followed by Norihiro Yokoyama, Masayoshi Ebina and Yuichi Fukunaga.
And then in fifth is Puerto Rican John R Velazquez who has the most career wins out of the top ten with more than 6,000.
But that pales in comparison to Canadian Russell Baze who has the most wins on the 50-strong list with almost 13,000 to his name.
Meanwhile, Sir Tony McCoy and Ruby Walsh are way down the list when it comes to financial rewards.
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McCoy’s earnings are reportedly £39m.
Walsh’s are said to be little over half that at £21m.
Although they may have been found lacking in financial clout compared to some of their rivals on the Flat, these brave jumps jockeys certainly more than made up for it with their exploits in the Grand National and at Cheltenham Festival last year.
And AP had a pretty nice house to boot!
Now they will all be hoping for more glory at this week’s Cheltenham Festival.