COLIN Keane will be crowned champion jockey in Ireland for the fourth time as the 2022 flat season concludes tomorrow at Naas.

Keane moved one winner clear of his title rival Billy Lee at Dundalk on Wednesday, not long after Lee’s appeal against a six-day whip ban was dismissed in front of an appeals panel before racing, which resulted in the Limerick rider’s suspension covering the final two meetings of the season.

The two have been locked into battle for most of the second half of the season, with Lee, a 50/1 shot at the beginning of the year, holding the lead on several occasions. However Keane has always been to the head of the table, and eventually did enough to secure his third title in a row, a feat only achieved twice since 1991, by Mick Kinane and Pat Smullen. The highlight of his 90 wins (before racing at Dundalk yesterday evening) will undoubtedly be his Irish Derby win on Westover.

“It’s great to win another title,” Keane told The Irish Field. “But obviously it takes the shine off it the way Billy was suspended for the last couple of days.

“Billy is a world-class rider. The effort he has put in this year has been huge. The yards he is riding for are getting bigger and stronger every year. They’ve had a magnificent year hence why he’s in the position he is. It’s a pity the way things finished but I’ve no doubt he’ll be in a similar position next year.”

“To win a fourth title is massive. I’m in a very lucky position. I ride for a great boss in Ger Lyons. I wouldn’t be in this position without him, he signed us up all those years ago, and Ruadhri Tierney, I’ve been with him from the start. Between those two men, and obviously my mother and father, friends and family, I’ve a lot of people to thank, I’m just very fortunate really.”

For the second year in a row, Donegal native Dylan Browne McMonagle has taken the apprentice championship. Like last year, he leads home Mikey Sheehy, though the gap between the pair had grown to 22 wins before Dundalk yesterday evening. Browne McMonagle enjoyed an excellent breakthrough Group 1 success on Al Riffa in the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes and needs only one more winner to beat his tally of 48 last season.

Sheehy has had another fine year, riding out his claim when winning the Irish Cambridgeshire on the Joseph O’Brien-trained Federal in late August.

For the 25th time, Aidan O’Brien is Ireland’s champion trainer. O’Brien scored 11 Group 1 wins in three different countries and the successes of Little Big Bear (Phoenix Stakes) and Luxembourg (Irish Champion Stakes) were his highlight successes at home.

Mrs Sue Magnier is Ireland’s champion owner once again. Mrs Magnier narrowly gets the better of her fellow Coolmore partners Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith to retain the title.

All the champions will be crowned at Naas’s Flat Finale meeting tomorrow. The Kildare course won the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners Racecourse Award last Friday night and as a thank you to the owners, the course is offering free entry to any owner that presents their AIR card at the turnstiles.