Jack Kearney

The relationship that stands out most in his career is the one with trainer Stephen Thorne. Fifteen wins from 92 rides together — winning roughly 1 in every 6 — is the sort of number that suggests real trust between a jockey and a yard. When a trainer keeps putting the same rider up race after race, it usually means something beyond basic availability: they like how he communicates, how he rides to a plan, how the horses respond to him. Sixteen percent is significantly above Kearney's overall average, which tells you the Thorne partnership is genuinely his sweet spot.

One detail worth noting is how well he rides on normal ground — 13 wins from 110 races at 12%, which is nearly double his current season average. That gap is striking. It suggests Kearney is at his most effective when conditions are straightforward and races run at a predictable pace, and that he may be less comfortable — or simply less well-booked — when the ground becomes a factor. Whether that is a tactical issue or simply a quirk of which horses he gets on in different conditions, it is the kind of pattern that will not have gone unnoticed by the people deciding who rides their horses.

At 88 career winners and still only four years in, Kearney is by no means a finished article. The priority this season has to be arresting that slide in win rate. Getting back closer to 1 in every 9 — where he was a year ago — would tell the weighing room that the dip was a blip rather than a trend.