Danny Tudhope Is A Jockey To Follow

With Royal Ascot having just passed by fashion is a word that can be linked rather nicely with racing but in this context the fashion context we are talking about is one of jockey’s being in fashion. This type of fashion can change very quickly and it’s very easy to go from hero to zero in a couple of steps, the road back can be somewhat longer.

All of the above applies very neatly to the jockey in focus here – Danny Tudhope, who is fighting his way back into the big time after a career blighted by setbacks. Once amongst the likely contenders for the apprentice title a series of injuries have made the path to fully-fledged jockey and a possible member of the weighing room elite a longer journey than Tudhope had thought it would be.

Due to his diminutive stature 16-year-old Tudhope arrived at the Northern Racing College via the school careers office – he was a natural and on completing the course he joined Declan Carroll as an apprentice. Disaster first struck when he was there in 2006 and competing for the apprentice title, a broken thumb keeping him out of the final six weeks of the season and the title was lost by seven winners to Stephen Donohue.

That was first but not the only time that his career was affected by injury and a series of spells on the sidelines have meant that it has taken him far longer to get to the level that he is now riding despite possessing the natural talent.

His latest injury did however provide the catalyst for his current job as it was during his comeback from a knee injury that he started riding out for his current boss David O’Meara. Silvestre De Sousa was the O’Meara go-to rider last season but with the Brazilian in greater and greater demand Tudhope has slipped into his shoes at the O’Meara yard. Highlights so far include a first Group winner for both O’Meara and Tudhope with Blue Bajan in the Henry II Stakes at Sandown and a purple patch of 23 rides which returned 12 winners including a four-timer at Catterick which was 437-1 in the horse racing odds.

So far this year Tudhope has ridden 19 winners from just 106 rides a very healthy 19% strike-rate and most importantly supporting each of his rides would have yielded a £54.91 profit to £1 level stakes. O’Meara remains his main source of winners (11/52), with Jim Goldie also providing winners this year (6/22), it may also be worth watching out for when Tudhope teams up with trainer Geoff Harker. That has only happened on three occasions this season and two of those occasions have proved successful and those looking to place a horse bet should bear this in mind.

It may have taken Tudhope a while to get where he was going but he seems on the right path now and is very much one to keep on your side in the north.