Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-08-23
Since the start of June, one rider has won more races in Britain and Ireland than anybody else, and it is not the name most people would guess.
Billy Loughnane leads on 87 winners from 409 rides, a strike rate of 21%. That is both the highest win total and one of the better strike rates among the riders operating at that volume, which is an unusual combination: most jockeys who ride enough to top a win count do it by taking every ride going and accepting a lower percentage.
Oisin Murphy is second on 71 from 381, at 19%, and had the better big-meeting summer of the two. He was leading rider at the Ebor Festival with four winners and has been the most visible jockey at the major fixtures.
Behind them, Dylan Browne McMonagle on 52 and Rossa Ryan on 49 have both had strong summers, with Ryan finishing the Ebor Festival by winning the Ebor Handicap itself. Colin Keane sits on 46 and rode two Group 1 winners in a single week at York, which is a reminder that a win count and a season's worth of impact are not the same measurement.
The gap between first and second is substantial. Loughnane has ridden more and won more, and unless something changes he is going to end the summer clear.
All of these figures cover 1 June to 22 August 2026 and count every race in our results archive, British and Irish, Flat and jumps together. That is a specific window and it is not the official championship. More on why at the end.
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The trainers
Joseph O'Brien leads on 74 winners from 390 runners at 19%, and has done it across both codes, which is the pattern that yard has established over several seasons.
Andrew Balding is second on 59 from 331, and picked the right week to have his best of the year: six winners at the Ebor Festival, including two Group 1s. A yard that sits second on the summer win count and then takes a fifth of a major festival is operating at the top of its range.
James Owen is third on 57 from 285, at 20%, which is the best strike rate of the three yards at the top of the table.
Behind them Ralph Beckett on 49 and William Haggas on 46 have both had the kind of summer that keeps a stable in the Group races without dominating the raw numbers. Haggas took two at York, including Saturday's Melrose Handicap.
The order at the top of a win count reflects volume as much as quality, so it is worth reading alongside the strike-rate table below rather than instead of it. A yard sending out 390 runners in twelve weeks is playing a different game from one sending 140, and both can be having an excellent season.
The best strike rates belong to the jumps yards
Sort by percentage rather than by total and the table turns over completely.
Harry Skelton has won 44 from 123 rides, a strike rate of 36%. Among riders with a hundred or more rides since June, nobody is close. Dan Skelton's yard is the trainer equivalent at 46 winners from 140 runners, 33%.
That is the summer jumps game, and it is a genuinely different sport from the Flat in terms of how a yard operates. Summer jumping in Britain runs on smaller fields and a narrower pool of horses, and a strong operation aimed at it can dominate its own division in a way that is nearly impossible on the Flat, where the best yards are all pointed at the same handful of big meetings.
It also makes a point about how these tables should be read. Loughnane's 21% off 409 rides and Skelton's 36% off 123 are not comparable achievements, they are answers to different questions. One is "who won the most", the other is "who was most likely to win when they turned up". Both are real and neither is the championship.
The one figure that combines them is total winners, which is why the official titles are decided on it. On that measure the summer has belonged to Loughnane and Joseph O'Brien.
How we counted, and what this is not
These figures come from our own results archive, which records every runner in every race we publish results for. We counted every ride and every runner between 1 June and 22 August 2026, then ranked by winners.
Three things this is not, stated plainly because sloppy versions of this article are common.
It is not the official jockeys' or trainers' championship. The British Flat championship runs to its own calendar, counts British Flat racing only, and is decided by the British Horseracing Authority. Our window is three summer months and includes Irish fixtures and jumps racing, because that is what our results cover. The two will not agree and are not supposed to.
It is not prize money. Titles and reputations often turn on earnings rather than volume, and a yard with fewer winners at a higher level can have the more valuable season. We are counting races won.
And three months is a season within a season. A summer table rewards operations aimed at summer racing. It says little about a yard that has been building towards the autumn, and nothing at all about the jumps season proper.
What it does do is answer the question people actually ask in August, which is who is in form right now. On that, the answer is clear enough.
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