After a tight battle with Ryan Moore, James McDonald has won the 2024 Longines World's Best Jockey title. The New Zealand-born, Australia-based jockey also won the World's Best Jockey Award in 2022.
To claim the title, McDonald won nine of the world's top 100 group or grade 1 races, with his qualifying victories coming in the Hong Kong Mile (Romantic Warrior), Stewards' Cup (Voyage Bubble), Hong Kong Gold Cup (Romantic Warrior), Ranvet Stakes (Via Sistina), Queen Elizabeth II Cup (Romantic Warrior), Yasuda Kinen (Romantic Warrior), Cox Plate (Via Sistina), Champions Sprint (Sunshine in Paris), and Champions Stakes (Via Sistina).
McDonald won this year's award by a narrow margin of 10 points. The scoring process rewards jockeys for finishing in the top three, giving McDonald a total of 160 points on the year. Moore, who has won this award four times, was second with 150 points, while William Buick was third with 105 points.
The awarding of the World's Best Jockey title is based upon performances in the 100 highest-rated group 1 and grade 1 races as established for the year by the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings Committee. The scoring incorporates races from Dec. 1 of the previous year through Nov. 30 of the current year. Jockeys accrue 12 points for a win, 6 points for placing second, and 4 points for placing third.
A ceremony will be held during the gala dinner of the Longines Hong Kong International Races Dec. 6 2024 at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre to honor McDonald. The full and final standings for the 2024 Longines World's Best Jockey competition can be found at www.ifhaonline.org.
The Longines World's Best Jockey Award was established 11 years ago by Swiss watch brand Longines and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities as a way to quantitatively recognize a jockey as the best among his or her global peers. Moore was the inaugural recipient of the award and his other wins came in 2016, 2021, and 2023. Frankie Dettori has also won the award four times, with his victories coming in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Hugh Bowman won the award in 2017.
