Javier Castellano

Venezuela-born Javier Castellano won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, making him one of just two jockeys to win four consecutive Eclipse Awards and, in 2017, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Castellano, 41, first moved to the United States in June, 1997, and rode his first winner stateside, Phone Man, at Calder Race Course, now Gulfstream Park West, in Florida the following month. However, over two decades later, Castellano is riding at the top of his form and is arguably the best jockey in North America, if not the world.

 

Castellano comes from good racing stock. His late father, Abel, who was murdered during a robbery attempt in Venezuela in 2000, his uncle and his younger brother, Abel Jr., were all jockeys and Abel Jr. is now a trainer in Maryland after a riding career cut short by concussion in December, 2015.

 

Having relocated from Florida to the higher-profile New York State circuit in 2001, Castellano first found fame as the jockey of Ghostzapper, trained by Robert Frankel, who was unbeaten in four starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in his four-year-old season in 2004 and was subsequently named Eclipse Horse of the Year. Two years later, in 2006, Castellano recorded his first ‘Triple Crown’ win on Bernardini, trained by Thomas Albertrani, in the Preakness Stakes, but his victory was overshadowed by the hind leg fracture suffered by the Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro, which led to the end of his racing career and, ultimately, to his demise.

 

It would be another eleven years before Castellano won his second Triple Crown race, the Preakness Stakes again, in 2017, on Cloud Computing, trained by Chad Brown. The Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes remain glaring omissions on his CV but, even so, at the time of his induction to the Hall of Fame, had ridden 4,644 winners and earned $276 million in prize money. In the autumn of 2018, Castellano reached the milestone of 5,000 winners and, shortly afterwards, recorded his ninth and tenth Breeders’ Cup wins, on Bulletin in the Juvenile Turf Sprint and City Of Light in the Dirt Mile.

Ryan Moore

Ryan Moore is part of a racing dynasty founded by his late grandfather, Charlie, a used-car salesman who became a trainer, and now headed by his father, Gary, a trainer and former jump jockey. His brothers, Jamie and Joshua, are both current jump jockeys and his sister, Hayley, was a leading amateur rider before turning her hand to television presenting, on the Sky Sports Racing TV channel.

 

In 2001, at the age of 18, Moore was apprenticed to trainer Richard Hannon Snr. in Marlborough, Wiltshire. With the support of the man who would become, at the time of his retirement in November, 2013, the most prolific trainer in the history of British horse racing, Moore became Champion Apprentice in 2003, with 52 winners, and Champion Jockey in 2006, with 182 winners. Three months on the sidelines with a broken wrist in 2007 put paid to any further jockeys’ title aspirations, at least temporarily, but at the end of the year Moore was appointed stable jockey to Sir Michael Stoute in Newmarket, Suffolk.

 

Under the auspices of the ten-time Champion Trainer, Moore became Champion Jockey again in 2008, and in 2009, and the following season won his first British Classics. In fact, that year he completed the Derby – Oaks double on Workforce, trained by Stoute, and Snow Fairy, trained by Ed Dunlop. Further Classic success followed, in the 1,000 Guineas, on Homecoming Queen, in 2012 and the Derby, on Ruler Of The World, in 2013. Both those winners were trained by Aidan O’Brien and, in April, 2015, it was announced that Moore would ride the ‘main horses’ for Ballydoyle. Since that appointment, Moore has ridden six more British Classic winners, all bar one for Aidan O’Brien.

 

A softly spoken, perhaps even reticent, individual, Moore is nonetheless technically excellent, tactically astute and, arguably, one of the best, if not the best, jockeys in the world. He is one of just four British-based jockeys still riding to feature in the all-time top twenty, but his horsemanship, courage and timing have been seen throughout the racing world, including Europe, North America and the Far East.

Native River

At the time of writing, Native River is rated 165+ by Timeform, some 7lb lower than when winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2018, but the ‘+’ indicates that he may be better than the respected ratings organisation gives him credit for. It would be fair to say that the nine-year-old endured a slightly disappointing campaign in 2018/19, failing to add to his winning tally, but although beaten, was by no means disgraced in three of the four Grade One staying chases staged in Britain. He finished second, beaten 4 lengths, behind Bristol De Mai in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November, third, beaten 13½ lengths, behind Clan Des Obeaux in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day and fourth, beaten 9¼ lengths, behind Al Boum Photo in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

 

Taken at face value, the latter performance appears to be some way below that in the ‘Blue Riband’ event in 2017, when he finished third, beaten 2¾ lengths and a head, or in 2018, when he beat main market rival Might Bite by 4½ lengths after an epic duel with the runner-up. However, it is worth noting that Native River has recorded his last four wins – in the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow in December, 2016, the Denman Chase at Newbury in February, 2017 and February, 2018 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, 2018 – all came on soft going.

 

In the Betfair Chase, run on going that was good, good to soft in places, Native River was, according to his trainer, Colin Tizzard, ‘flat out most of the way’, in the King George VI Chase, run on similar going, the gelding was, once again, under pressure for most of the way before sticking on to finish third and, in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, run on good to soft going, could not dominate the field as he had done when victorious in 2018. At the time of writing, Native River is 20/1 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup for a second time in 2020 and, if the going were to come up soft at Prestbury Park, the lightly-raced son of Indian River could make those odds look very generous indeed.

Altior

In March, 2019, Altior won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival for the second year running, justifying 4/11 favouritism in workmanlike, rather than spectacular, fashion. In so doing, the nine-year-old equalled the world record for the consecutive number of wins over obstacles, 18, held by four-time Stayers’ Hurdle winner, Big Buck’s. However, just over a month later, Altior contested the Celebration Chase at Sandown – a race he had won for the previous two seasons – and, although once again less-than-imperious, won unchallenged, by 2½ lengths, to beat the aforementioned world record.

 

Owned by Patricia Pugh and trained by Nicky Henderson, Altior has the distinction of being the highest-rated steeplechaser in training, according to Timeform, with a rating of 180p – the ‘p’ indicating that he is likely to improve still further – and probably rightly so, after an unbeaten run stretching back four complete National Hunt seasons to October, 2015. In fact, Altior his unbeaten over obstacles, large or small, the two defeats in his 21-race career coming in confusingly-titled National Hunt Flat Races on his second and third starts, early in his five-year-old campaign.

 

Undefeated in five subsequent starts over hurdles, culminating with a 7-length win over Min and stable companion Buveur D’Air in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2016, Altior was sent over fences the following November and made a seamless transition to the larger obstacles. He won all six races, including the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, and the Celebration Chase for the first time, all at long-odds on. In 2017/18, he returned to the Cheltenham Festival to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase for the first time and did so again in 2018/19, allowing Nicky Henderson to equal the record held by Tom Dreaper, with six wins in the two-mile chasing championship.

 

The only horse to complete a hat-trick in the Queen Mother Champion Chase was Badsworth Boy in 1983, 1984 and 1985, but Nicky Henderson has indicated that the King George VI Chase, over 3 miles, at Kempton may well be on the agenda for Altior in 2019/20, so it remains to be seen what the future holds for the record-breaking ‘chaser.

Tiger Roll

Tiger Roll was once the property of Sheikh Mohammed and, while he never raced for that esteemed owner, it was in a slightly different set of maroon and white silks – those of Gigginstown House Stud owner, Michael O’Leary – that he made his name. Having made a winning debut for Devon trainer Nigel Hawke in juvenile hurdle at Market Rasen in November, 2013, Tiger Roll was bought by O’Leary and sent to Co. Meath trainer Gordon Elliott, with a view to winning the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Two starts later, he won the Grade One Triumph Hurdle, under Davy Russell – with whom he would be famously reunited later in his career – and, despite struggling to make much impression in conditions hurdle races thereafter, also won the National Hunt Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2016.

 

Notwithstanding those two, high-profile victories, Tiger Roll has become a household name by winning the Grand National two years running in 2018 and 2019 – making him the first horse to do so since Red Rum in 1973 and 1974 – both times under Davy Russell. Even before his second Aintree victory, though, Tiger Roll had become a Cheltenham Festival phenomenon, winning the Glenfarclas Country Chase – to take his Festival tally to four races in two different disciplines, over three different distances, in the space of six seasons – in 2018 and 2019.

 

Once described as a ‘little rat of a thing’ by his owner, Tiger Roll has now won five of his last six starts, including a surprise win, at 25/1 win, over hurdles at Navan in February, 2019 and, while still only a nine-year-old, is unlikely to attempt a Grand National hat-trick. Tiger Roll is 8/1 favourite to win the Aintree marathon for the third year running, but Michael O’Leary has said that he is ‘duty-bound to mind’ his charge and is more inclined to make the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase his main target for the 2019/20 season, followed by an honourable retirement.

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