Hugh Horgan(5)

The last twelve months have been a grind. Three winners from 52 rides works out at roughly 1 in every 17 races, which is a modest return by any measure. His most regular partnership is with trainer Joseph Patrick O'Brien's yard, where he has ridden 22 times and come home in front just once — a 1-in-22 record that suggests he is often handed difficult assignments rather than the yard's star turns.

Where Horgan looks most comfortable is on normal, dry ground. He has won 2 from 17 races in those conditions — around 1 in every 8 or 9 — which is noticeably better than his overall numbers and hints that he rides with more confidence and freedom when the track is running fast and true beneath him. It is a small but meaningful pattern, the kind of thing that a shrewd trainer might keep in mind when deciding who gets the leg-up on a dry summer afternoon.

At 35 career winners and four years in, Horgan is a journeyman building his book of rides rather than a name that trainers are fighting over. But every successful jockey has gone through exactly this phase — doing the unglamorous work, learning the craft, waiting for the right horse to give them a moment. The numbers are modest for now, but the story is still being written.