He’s got a massive advantage, but Donnacha O’Brien is seriously good

Donnacha O’Brien (pictured with Magna Grecia): he has climbed 40 places in the jockeys’ standings in the last 12 months. Photo: Racingfotos.com

This week’s TRC Jockey of the Week award goes to the youngest rider in the top 100 of the TRC standings.

 

TRC JOCKEY OF THE WEEK

There is no doubt 20-year-old DONNACHA O’BRIEN (+5pts, #27 from #31) is taking full advantage of his father Aidan’s domination; he often gets to ride a live contender – even when Ryan Moore (+1pt, stays #1) is on the stable’s first choice. This week, he landed both the G3 MNBA Chester Vase at Chester and the G3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown.

In the equivalent rankings this week last year, Donnacha was ranked #67 with a performance index of 961pts. That he has gained 40 places and 35pts is, of course, a function of the opportunities afforded to him on Irish and British soil, not to mention the absence of Moore on occasional foreign missions.

Make no mistake here though: Donnacha is seriously good; were it not for the potential issue of increasing weight on his rangy frame, we would have no hesitation in naming him a future world #1, just like his brother Joseph.

After opening his account for the year on 2000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia, Donnacha now has three winners on the new European campaign.

He and Moore (five wins, including the G2 Mooresbridge Stakes on Magical) naturally lag a long way behind the annual leaders, which are shown in the table as if the only data we had for the rankings was that of 2019:

The Flying Ortiz brothers continue to be absolute box office in the U.S., representing Puerto Rico with distinction. In the overall rankings, we have Jose Ortiz #9 and Irad Ortiz #11 but there is no doubt that Irad has had the better of it so far this year.

Meanwhile, Australian racing has seen the revival of #17 James McDonald and #29 Blake Shinn, who were respectively #33 and #44 starting the year.

Full jockey standings here

Click here for a list of all last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers

Click here for a list of all the week’s Group and Graded winners

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