It almost goes without saying that the late Lester Piggott is, and possibly always will be, the most successful jockey in the history of Royal Ascot. ‘Old Stoneface’ rode his first winner at the Royal meeting, Malka’s Boy, trained by Walter Nightingall, in the Wokingham Stakes in 1952 and his last, College Chapel, trained by Vincent O’Brien, in the Cork and Orrery Stakes – now the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes – in 1993. All told, Piggott amassed 116 winners at the June showpiece, including a record 11 in the signature Gold Cup, and is rightly commemorated by a life-size statue at the Berkshire course.
Between 1950 and 2002, when Royal Ascot was extended to five days to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the races on the Saturday, known as ‘Ascot Heath’, were held in the absence of royalty and not considered part of the Royal meeting. Furthermore, the number of daily races at Royal Ascot was only extended to seven, by Royal consent, as recently as 2021, so Piggott achieved his record total at a time when the Royal meeting consisted of 24, rather than 35, races.
That is not to say that the current jockeys in pursuit of Piggott have exactly stood still in recent years. In second place on the all-time list, though, is the soon-to-be-retired Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori, who rode his first Royal Ascot winner, Markofdistinction, trained by Luca Cumani, in the Queen Anne Stakes in 1990. On his final appearance at the Royal meeting, in 2023, Dettori rode four winners, including the Gold Cup winner, Courage Mon Ami, trained by John and Thady Gosden, to extend his career total to 81.
However, third-placed Ryan Moore, who turns 40 in September, is currently only two winners behind Dettori, on 79, having added a further half a dozen to his career tally in 2023. Indeed, Moore, who was champion jockey in 2006, 2008 and 2009, has been the leading jockey at Royal Ascot no fewer than 10 times since 2010, so it would be reasonable to expect him to overhaul the likeable Italian in due course.