It was a case of eyes down for marketing buzzword bingo on Monday morning, as news emerged that a dozen leading riders, includingFrankie Dettori, Ryan Moore, William Buick and Yutaka Take, have signed up to compete in a new international jockeys’ league from 2026, with up to 10 six-race fixtures annually staged at some of the sport’s most famous tracks around the world.
According to various reports, the “revolutionary” new competition will, its organisers claim, have “a franchise-based league structure” designed to turn riders into “global icons” and engage a “fresh audience” for racing. The jockeys involved will own equity in their team, act as the “team principal” for their franchise and, if all goes to plan, will be competing for a share of a $15m prize fund within two years.
Beyond the names of the riders involved – which also include James McDonald, Flavien Prat, Irad Ortiz Jr, Vincent Ho, Mickaël Barzalona and Christophe Lemaire – there is not much clarity as yet on important information such as dates, venues or how the competition will be structured given that the riders are not racing’s primary athletes. For now, the aim seems to be to secure commercial backing and sponsorship for the project as a whole and the individual riders’ teams.
Innovation, new money and, hopefully, a fresh generation of enthusiasts for a sport with an ageing fanbase. It is, on the face of it, an enticing prospect, and the project’s co-founders, John Ferguson and Lachlan Fitt, have a wide range of experience in the industry. Ferguson is a former chief executive of the Godolphin operation and current board member of the British Horseracing Authority, while Fitt recentlyresigned from his roleas deputy CEO of gambling group Entain’s Australian arm.
At the same time, though, and while there are undoubtedly some very talented names on the cast-list of riders, the simple fact remains that the sport is called horse racing for a reason. This has been a source of frustration for the promoters for decades – how do you persuade people to engage with athletes when the athletes can’t talk? – and trying to persuade them to engage with the jockeys instead is not exactly blue sky thinking.
The Shergar Cup, a jockey-based team event at Ascot in August, has been around for a quarter of a century, while the International Jockeys’ Championship has long been a popular feature of Hong Kong’s annual International event in December.
But these events are, essentially, just a bit of fun before the serious stuff with the best horses gets underway. To be anything more than that, or provide a meaningful comparison between the abilities of the riders involved, the new league would need to account for the varying chances of the horses taking part but without making it all too complex for its audience to understand.
A jockey’s role, after all, is to maximise a horse’s chance by getting it from start to finish as swiftly and efficiently as possible. If an odds-on shot scrambles home from a 25-1 outsider, the rider of the runner-up may well have done their job much better than the one on the winner, but no jockey will ever be able to make a horse run any faster than its genes, physique and preparation will allow.
This is not to suggest that there is anything wrong with a bit of fun, and while the flag-waving at the Shergar Cup may not be to everyone’s taste, it was Ascot’s second-biggest draw outside of the Royal meeting last year.
With its talk of a $15m prize fund, though, and a claim by Fitt that “the concept we’ve developed with our foundation jockeys can help revolutionise global horseracing in the coming years”, the global jockeys’ league seems to be aiming to be rather more than a sideshow.
There is precious little detail available as yet, and there may be a cunning plan to make the league a meaningful contest between jockeys from very different racing backgrounds. Perhaps it will also find the fresh audience it is looking for, but from this fan’s perspective at least, a racing enterprise that relegates the horses to supporting-actor roles does seem to be missing the point.