THERE is a common theme between the jockeys leading both the British and Irish National Hunt Jockeys’ Championships at present.

Yes, Sean Bowen and Darragh O’Keeffe are two of the most talented riders around, aged in their mid-to-late 20s and associated with high-quality yards, but their year-on-year statistics paint a clear picture as to one of the key factors in their success.

Bowen is well on his way to another title in Britain, nearly 100 winners clear of his nearest rival with a rising tally of 180. Crucially, though, he is also the busiest jockey in the sport - and by some way.

According to the Racing Post’s database on Tuesday evening, the proud Welshman has had a staggering 725 rides already this season - and we still have a week and a half to go in January. To put that volume of rides into context, the jockey closest to him in quantity of mounts this season is Brian Hughes on a very respectable 413, followed by Sam Twiston-Davies on 398. Both are well adrift of Bowen’s levels.

For good measure, Bowen won last year’s title with the same number of winners he’s on right now (180). In that 2024/’25 campaign, he took a massive total of 902 rides - again, miles clear of Hughes, his nearest pursuer on 706.

In Ireland, O’Keeffe has been blazing a trail, both in terms of winners and rides. After Down Royal’s card on Tuesday, he is now up to 504 rides domestically for the current season - a major effort considering how much less racing there is here compared to Britain.

Phillip Enright, so often in demand, is the next busiest in the standings on 385, followed by Jack Kennedy on 346 (a fair achievement in its own right, given the time he missed at the beginning of the campaign with injury) and Donagh Meyler on 304. No other jockey has broken into 300+ rides in Ireland, so 504 for O’Keeffe is some going.

The 25-year-old being in demand is nothing new. He is on course to be the busiest National Hunt jockey in Ireland for four of the last five seasons.

Massive numbers

Henry de Bromhead’s number-one jockey has taken a stunning total of 3,367 mounts in Ireland alone over the last five and a half seasons. If he has as many rides as he did last year from now until the end of the Punchestown Festival, he’ll break his previous record of 628 mounts in a single season (set in 2021/’22).

Of course, it makes sense that the number of winners a jockey is having correlates strongly with their overall volume of rides. When a jockey is riding winners, they will always attract more business, and a greater number of riding opportunities should boost their winner count. The two components are understandably interlinked.

Yet, it appears to be the work rate of the likes of Bowen and O’Keeffe that is surely giving them an edge over the average rider. Both are in solid jobs with access to classy horses - especially O’Keeffe since Rachael Blackmore’s retirement earlier this season. By all accounts that you hear, though, the pair are unrelenting in their pursuit of more winners; regardless of whatever track or grade of race they come in. They are savagely hungry workers.

In Ireland, that willingness to go the extra mile has been seen in the number of trainers O’Keeffe has been riding for - and that may prove key if he is to hold off Jack Kennedy and Paul Townend, who are cutting back his deficit all the time.

It’s well documented that Willie Mullins often tends to ratchet up his winner count through the late winter months, and that is bound to be a big help to Townend in the coming weeks. For example, in January and February last year, Mullins sent out a combined total of 58 winners in Ireland.

Kennedy has strong numerical backing with Gordon Elliott through the depths of winter too - as seen with their phenomenal Christmas haul. Likewise, there were 26 Irish winners from Cullentra during the first two months of 2025.

Quieter winters

De Bromhead, who had a fine festive period in his own right, does not tend to have as much ammunition during this stage of the year, however.

He saddled two Irish winners last January and four in February. A year earlier was better, with four and eight winners respectively in the months, but the year before saw just five and four apiece. There was some conversation around this point at de Bromhead’s yard during a pre-Christmas press morning this season, when the topic of preferred goings for his runners arose.

“A lot of our horses would have a preference for nicer ground, and that’s why a lot of mine target Leopardstown,” the Grand National-winning trainer explained.

“The two places in Ireland that you usually find those nicer conditions at this time of year are Thurles and Leopardstown; especially after a wetter autumn than normal.

“In terms of why that might be the case with our horses preferring nicer ground, a factor is probably how we train them. If we have horses who go on heavy ground, that’s fine, but I probably wouldn’t train them to make them go on it.

“Now, it can be a bit frustrating when you have a longer winter, but we often have about 10 months where there isn’t heavy ground - it’s typically yielding or so. This year is slightly different, but that’s the way it goes.”

If Mullins and Elliott are going to get behind their number-one jockeys with major strength in numbers during this window, it might be a case that O’Keeffe will have to really rely on outside sources to help give him a proper shot at achieving his first championship. He has already been leaning on other outfits with some success.

Sublime ride

If you haven’t seen his winning ride on 28/1 longshot Soldierstown (a first winner under rules for trainer Peter Buchanan) at Fairyhouse last week, it is well worth watching back. The Corkman never gave up on his mare, who traded at as big as 979/1 in-running, and he collared Townend on the 4/7 favourite. It was a sublime effort.

That unlikely success meant O’Keeffe has now ridden winners for an impressive 21 different yards in Ireland this season. In fact, he has taken rides for 89 individual trainers in 2025/’26.

His nearest rivals don’t tend to ride for outside trainers as often. Kennedy has visited the winner’s enclosure for six different yards this season (has ridden for 13 trainers). Only two of Townend’s rides this season were for trainers not named Willie Mullins. It all goes to show that there is more than one way to win a title.

That said, the miles covered by the men setting the pace in Britain and Ireland this season suggests that the harder they work, the luckier they get.

Prior to last weekend’s Manchester derby, Pep Guardiola bemoaned a busy schedule of games for exhausting his quieter-than-usual star striker Erling Haaland. Not for the first time, he called for heightened regulation of the footballing calendar.

Wouldn’t the Manchester City boss be in for quite the shock if he ever saw the volume of competition National Hunt racing’s top players engage in every season? These men and women in the weighing room really are built differently to other athletes.