Sam Twiston-Davies

The headline number is 25 Class 1 victories — the top tier of British racing, the races that actually matter when careers are being judged. Those wins have come at Cheltenham, Wetherby, and Newbury, three tracks that could hardly be more different from each other in character. Cheltenham is the sport's cathedral, a brutally honest test of horse and rider. Wetherby and Newbury each carry their own prestige. To have won at the highest level at all three tells you this is not a jockey who only performs on easy days. His win at Cheltenham on New Year's Day 2026 is the most recent reminder of that — a top-level victory on one of the hardest tracks in the country.

Perhaps the most interesting thread in his career is the relationship with trainer Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies — family, as it happens, which adds a layer of mutual investment to the professional one. From 193 races together they have produced 34 winners, a win rate of 18%, or roughly 1 in every 5.5 rides. That is a meaningful uptick on his overall average and suggests the stable knows exactly how to deploy him, and he knows exactly how their horses run. Thirty-four winners from a single yard is a partnership built on genuine understanding, not convenience.

The partnership with Big Ticket is a more modest story — 1 win from 6 races together — but it is worth watching. A win rate of roughly 1 in 6 with a specific horse is not yet a story, but it is a relationship still being written. At 25 Class 1 wins in four years, Sam Twiston-Davies has already shown he can deliver on the biggest occasions. The only question now is how high the ceiling goes.