Ray Dawson

The headline number from the last twelve months is 57 winners from 480 races, which works out at roughly 1 in every 8 — a 12% win rate that might sound modest until you set it against last year's 9%. That jump matters. It means Dawson is not just riding more horses, he is riding them better, or being trusted with better ones, or both. In a profession where marginal improvements compound quickly, a three-point gain in a single season is the kind of thing that gets trainers reaching for the phone.

His most productive partnership is with Roger Varian's yard, where the two have combined for 25 wins from 125 races together — that is 1 in every 5, a win rate that comfortably outpaces Dawson's overall average and suggests a real working understanding between jockey and team. When a trainer keeps booking the same rider at that kind of frequency, it is rarely a coincidence.

Dawson also has a notable edge in the wet. On soft or muddy ground, he has won 7 from 38 races — around 18%, or close to 1 in 5 — which is meaningfully higher than his overall average. That is not luck; riding well in difficult conditions takes timing, confidence, and feel. Some jockeys shrink when the ground gets testing. Dawson appears to do the opposite. And at Sandown Park specifically, he has landed 3 winners from just 7 runners there, a strike that includes his Class 1 victory on 30 August 2025. Three from seven at any track is impressive. Three from seven at one of Britain's most demanding venues, with a top-level win among them, is something else entirely.

Those four Class 1 victories — spread across Sandown Park, Chester and York, three very different tracks — tell you this is not a jockey who only performs in comfortable circumstances. The big days at the big venues are where reputations are made, and Dawson has made himself at home on them.