THE SUNDAY STORY - CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS. IT'S MORE ABOUT SURVIVAL THAN GLORY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, August 2, 2026

The final Trainer and Jockey Premierships for the 2025/26 racing season have been set in stone with due praise being rightfully directed at those who best managed the range of challenges they needed to negotiate to be able to reach the top of the ladder. In real terms though, it is not what it appears to be, a race for pride and glory. It is more like a battle for survival. HRO’s Graham Potter crunches the numbers.

Very little stands still in racing, not least the overall makeup of the jockey ranks in some racing jurisdictions where changes, by choice or circumstance, can rearrange the riding landscape to the point where they can paint a completely different picture from one season to the next.

Take the case of the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership for example.

There are no less than six new rider’s names in the Brisbane Top Ten for the 2025/26 season compared to that of 2024/25 … and that includes the Premiership winner Ben Thompson.

Only last season’s historic Premiership winner Angela Jones, last season’s runner-up Emily Lang, the third placed Ryan Maloney and the eighth placed Cejay Graham have survived the 2025/26 Premiership ladder cleanout.

Of those, only Maloney had an improved season both in terms of position and number of winners … not only moving from third to second place, but riding 27 more winners this season (74-47), a substantial increase. Maloney also recorded the highest winning strike-rate at 18.5 percent.

Jones finished third this season (down two places with winners down from 66 to 54) … Lang went from second to seventh (down five places with winners down from 63.5 to 32) … while Graham actually jumped two places on the ladder (from eighth to sixth) but was marginally down on winning rides (from 38 to 34).
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Of those coming into the Top Ten this season, Premiership winner Ben Thompson was the obvious standout. Returning from Hong Kong at the start of the season, Thompson was always going to knock somebody off their Top Ten berth, but clinching the Premiership was an outstanding effort.

There were two other new Top Ten entries that were really notable achievers.

Apprentice Jace McMurray, who stormed home in the Brisbane Apprentice Jockey’s Apprenticeship, was an eye-catcher in fourth place, while Daniel Moor, who relocated from Victoria a month into the start of the season, was as solid as they come, securing fifth position.

Martin Harley, Michael Rodd and Damien Thornton, who had finished twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth last season moved up this season to complete the new look Top Ten with Thornton claiming eighth spot, Harley (ninth) and Rodd (tenth).
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Those to fell out of the Top Ten were Andrew Mallyon (from fourth place to nineteenth place), Bailey Wheeler (from fifth place to ninety-third place – he was out of action for some time with licensing issues), Jimmy Orman (from sixth place to nowhere – he was riding in Hong Kong and did not participate in the season), Cody Collis (from seventh place to twenty-third – he left during the season to ride in Mauritius), Noel Callow (from ninth – to nowhere, he did not participate in the season due to lengthy suspensions) and Kyle Wilson-Taylor (from tenth to eighteenth place).

As with those riders who maintained their place in the Top Ten, every one of these statistics will have a story behind it, as varied as the characters involved themselves … from riding suspensions to injury enforced layoffs … to changing riding precincts … or through rash indiscretions and self-inflicted wounds… you name it, there are reasons aplenty for these shifting sands in the jockey’s ranks … as there will be again over the next twelve months.

There are exceptions of course, but unless a rider numbers amongst the likes of James McDonald, Craig Williams or Willie Pike, the bottom line, confirmed by these statistics, is that nobody’s position is safe … and that when the calendar flips open to the start of the new season, as it did on Saturday, they will have to work hard to earn their places all over again.

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