Amateur Jockeys

Jockeys are the start of a race
Carine06 | Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0

When it comes to riding horses, there are different categories that the jockeys fit into. At the start of their careers, professional jockeys are licensed either as Apprentices or Conditional jockeys, depending on whether they’re running in flat or jump racing. There are some jockeys that decide never to turn professional, instead spending their careers running as amateurs. That doesn’t mean that they can’t go up against the pros, with some amateurs winning the biggest races in the world. There are some races that are aimed specifically at amateurs, but that doesn’t mean that those taking part are without plenty of experience.

There can be many reasons why a jockey might decide to run as an amateur, including the fact that they’re come from a rich family and therefore don’t need the money that professionals get or else they have careers outside of the saddle that they don’t want to give up. Amateurs need to be members of the Amateur Jockey Association of Great Britain if they wish to run in most races that are confined to amateurs, with the exceptions being Hunter Chases, military races or events that are run against professionals. The other appeal to some is that racing is a sport in which amateurs and professionals can compete on a level with each other.

Amateurs don’t get fees for taking part in races, largely doing it for the prestige of winning. The classification is put in place for riders that are not professionals, nor are they on the track to becoming professionals. The rider will remain as an amateur for their entire racing career, unless they decide to go down the road to becoming a professional. That might sound obvious, but it is a reality of the world of amateur racing that some are forced to turn pro later in their careers for some reason, whilst others are in the fortuitous position of not needing to do anything other than ride as amateurs until they retire.

Sam Waley-Cohen


There is an argument to be made that Sam Waley-Cohen is the best amateur ever to ride a horse in Great Britain and Ireland. Son of the racehorse breeder and trainer Robert Waley-Cohen and his wife Felicity Ann, Waley-Cohen first made the sports pages in 2007 when he rode Liberthine, a horse trained by his father, to fifth place in the Grand National. If he was still unknown to many, that ceased to be the case in the January of 2011 when the delayed 2010 King George VI Chase took place and he rode Long Run to victory, stopping Kauto Star from winning the event for a record fifth time; a feat that he eventually achieved in 2011.

Waley-Cohen cemented his place as one of the top amateur jockeys when he won the King George again in 2012 on the same horse. That came after he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2011, also with Long Run. That made him the first amateur to win the race in 30 years. In 2022, Waley-Cohen confirmed that he planned to retire, with that year’s Grand National being his final outing in the race. He was on Noble Yeats, with the pair given odds of 50/1. The won from two and a half lengths from Any Second Now, making him the first amateur jockey to win the event for more than 30 years. Seven wins on the Grand National course in 41 attempts made him the most successful jockey on the course of the modern era.

Marcus Armytage


When Sam Waley-Cohen won the Grand National in 2022, he became the first amateur jockey to win the event since Marcus Armytage had managed it in 1990. It would be untrue to say that Armytage had had a difficult like, why the rider attending Eton College at the same sort of time as David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Even so, we shouldn’t hold that against him, with the youngster often slipping out of college in order to rider as an amateur in events at Windsor Races. It wasn’t just that Armytage won the National, but that he did so in incredible style, completing the race in under nine minutes, which remains a record.

In spite of the fact that the race has been run over a shortened distance since 2013, the ride by Armytage is the only one that was run under nine minutes and defeated the fastest record that had been set by Red Rum in 1973. Three weeks later and horse and amateur rider completed a unique double, winning the National-Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown Park Racecourse. It helped to contribute to him being named the 1990 Fegentri European Champion Amateur. Two years later and he rode two winners at the Cheltenham Festival, which was a feat that his sister had achieved in 1987. He rode his 100th winner in 2000 and retired thereafter.

Patrick Mullins


It takes something pretty special to have the surname ‘Mullins’ in the horse racing industry and stand out. That is thanks to the fact that his father, Willie Mullins, is the most successful trainer of all time, which has been of benefit to Patrick who has mainly ridden for him. He was just 28-years-old when he rode his 546th winner, making him the most successful amateur jockey in the history of Irish racing. That was on the Willie Mullins trained Queens Boulevard at Sligo, seeing him overtake the record that had been set by Ted Walsh. Mullins had already set the record for the number of winners by an amateur in a calendar year.

The fact that no British amateur rider had ever managed to get close to 546 winners meant that Mullins was de facto also the most successful British amateur, extending his record in the years that followed. It wasn’t just that he had managed to win a lot of races, but that the races that he did win were often well-known ones; he won the National Hunt Chase during the Cheltenham Festival, for example. At the time of writing, Mullins is still riding and has pondered whether he would be able to match his dad in riding until he’s 40. If he were to do so then it is likely that he would set an unassailable record for amateur jockeys.

Jim Wilson

When Jim Wilson died in 2022, the tributes to him poured in from all corners of the racing world. He was considered to be one of the best amateur riders that the sport had seen, with the likes of Nicky Henderson singing his praises. Henderson had been an amateur riding contemporary of Wilson’s, who made a name for himself in 1980 when he upstaged the professionals by being named the Top Jockey at the Cheltenham Festival thanks to his three wins that year. Things got even better for him a year later, however, when he took Little Owl to success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, also taking Willie Wumpkins to victory.

That was the horse’s third-straight win in the Coral Golden Hurdle Final, making him something of a cult figure. During his amateur riding career, Wilson won seven times at the Cheltenham Festival, proving that it wasn’t just the professionals who could enjoy success on the biggest stage. When his amateur racing career came to an end, Wilson decided to become a trainer himself and enjoyed success in that same race with Taberna Lord in 1987. Bob Wilson, the Grand national winning jockey, said that Wilson was ‘better than amateur’, saying, ‘He was a professional ability-wise, really’. Wilson died at the age of 72, having won at Cheltenham as rider, trainer and owner.

Bartholomew Bretherton

During the more formative years of the Grand National, there were plenty of amateur riders who won the race. In the eyes of some, it was the amateur riders that helped to make it into the race that it is today. With that in mind, it is only right to put on our list the first amateur winner of the ‘World’s Greatest Steeplechase’, who rode Jerry to victory in 1840. Technically the winner in the race’s debut the year before should’ve been an amateur, given that it was a rule that horses needed to be ridden by ‘gentlemen riders’, but that rule was completely ignored and the 1839 winner, Lottery, was ridden by a professional called Jem Mason.

The first amateur winner was Bartholomew Bretherton, who was the eighth child and third son of Francis Bretherton, a coach owner from the Maghull area of Liverpool. His father and brother were credited with starting the horse racing at Maghull Meadows, which became Aintree Racecourse. Two years before his Grand National win, Bretherton demonstrated his horse handling skills when he stopped a coach from overturning on the Preston Road by climbing out of the window and taking hold of the reigns, riding on the backs of the horses and calming them. Maybe not the most successful amateur jockey of all time, but certainly one with a tale to tell.