Incredibly, no Irish or UK jockeys feature on a worldwide list of the top 50 jockeys in terms of prize money won.
The team at OLBG have analysed the career earnings of the most successful jockeys of all time to reveal the world’s highest-earning jockeys.
Japanese riders dominate the list, with 26 of the top 50 hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun, while they fill eight of the top ten spots.
READ MORE: Grand National 2023: Irish-trained winner odds-on in betting as more domination expected
America come next on the list with 15 jockeys out of 50, while there are four Puerto Rican-born riders and one each from Venezuela, France, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Italy.
The Italian rider is Frankie Dettori, who is the only jockey on the list to be based mainly in the UK, but the fact his total prize money is over €653million less than that won by the number one rider on the list, Yutaka Take, shows the huge gulf in sums available between the UK and Japan.
The majority of earnings data were sourced from Equibase (for jockeys based in the US) by OLBG and Umanity (for jockeys based in Japan), while the Racing Post and Timeform was used to calculate earnings for British and Irish-based jockeys.
You can see the top 50 highest earning jockeys in full below (amounts in US dollars):
| Rank | Jockey | Country | WIns | Career Earnings USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yutaka Take | Japan | 4,408 | $925,811,000.00 |
| 2 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Japan | 2,910 | $607,066,000.00 |
| 3 | Yuichi Fukunaga | Japan | 2,636 | $561,327,000.00 |
| 4 | Masayoshi Ebina | Japan | 2,541 | $505,266,000.00 |
| 5 | John R. Velazquez | Puerto Rico | 6,485 | $463,086,551.00 |
| 6 | Yoshitomi Shibata | Japan | 2,316 | $443,890,000.00 |
| 7 | Yasunari Iwata | Japan | 1,749 | $387,907,000.00 |
| 8 | Yuga Kawada | Japan | 1,855 | $382,435,000.00 |
| 9 | Javier Castellano | Venezuela | 5,621 | $378,191,886.00 |
| 10 | Yukio Okabe | Japan | 2,928 | $377,458,000.00 |
| 11 | Christophe Lamaire | France | 1,662 | $371,828,000.00 |
| 12 | Shinji Fujita | Japan | 1,918 | $368,487,000.00 |
| 13 | Mike E. Smith | United States | 5,698 | $345,513,198.00 |
| 14 | Katsuharu Tanaka | Japan | 1,808 | $341,503,000.00 |
| 15 | Hirofumi Shii | Japan | 1,586 | $332,260,000.00 |
| 16 | Hideaki Miyuki | Japan | 1,622 | $330,187,000.00 |
| 17 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Japan | 1,339 | $322,966,000.00 |
| 18 | Pat Day | United States | 8,803 | $297,914,839.00 |
| 19 | Jerry D. Bailey | United States | 5,893 | $296,113,529.00 |
| 20 | Joel Rosario | Dominican Republic | 3,451 | $294,879,952.00 |
| 21 | Kent J. Desormeaux | United States | 6,129 | $291,595,250.00 |
| 22 | Hiroki Goto | Japan | 1,447 | $275,390,000.00 |
| 23 | Edgar S. Prado | United States | 7,119 | $272,008,849.00 |
| 24 | Irad Ortiz, Jr. | Puerto Rico | 3,365 | $269,998,902.00 |
| 25 | Hiroshi Kawachi | Japan | 2,111 | $269,767,000.00 |
| 26 | Eiji Nakadate | Japan | 1,823 | $268,409,000.00 |
| 27 | Chris J. McCarron | United States | 7,141 | $263,986,005.00 |
| 28 | Hiroshi Kitamura | Japan | 1,417 | $263,152,000.00 |
| 29 | Keita Tosaki | Japan | 1,348 | $258,303,000.00 |
| 30 | Gary L. Stevens | United States | 5,187 | $258,217,768.00 |
| 31 | Hiroyuki Uchida | Japan | 1,324 | $255,254,000.00 |
| 32 | Yutaka Yoshida | Japan | 1,285 | $255,047,000.00 |
| 33 | Mikio Matsunaga | Japan | 1,400 | $251,801,000.00 |
| 34 | Katsumi Andō | Japan | 1,111 | $245,873,000.00 |
| 35 | Alex O. Solis | United States | 5,035 | $238,405,472.00 |
| 36 | Laffit A. Pincay, Jr. | United States | 9,530 | $237,120,625.00 |
| 37 | Corey S. Nakatani | United States | 3,909 | $234,554,534.00 |
| 38 | Suguru Hamanaka | Japan | 1,142 | $229,948,000.00 |
| 39 | Rafael Bejarano | Puerto Rico | 4,359 | $224,232,705.00 |
| 40 | Robby Albarado | United States | 5,222 | $221,561,248.00 |
| 41 | Jose L. Ortiz | Puerto Rico | 2,648 | $217,821,467.00 |
| 42 | Frankie Dettori | Italy | 3,288 | $212,479,167.00 |
| 43 | Victor Espinoza | Mexico | 3,495 | $211,332,295.00 |
| 44 | Shin'ichirō Akiyama | Japan | 1,044 | $207,169,000.00 |
| 45 | Katsumi Minai | Japan | 1,522 | $205,645,000.00 |
| 46 | Garrett K. Gomez | United States | 3,769 | $205,224,899.00 |
| 47 | Russell A. Baze | United States | 12,842 | $199,334,219.00 |
| 48 | Joe Bravo | United States | 5,591 | $197,277,263.00 |
| 49 | Eddie J. Delahoussaye | United States | 6,384 | $195,884,940.00 |
| 50 | Kohei Matsuyama | Japan | 1,032 | $195,587,000.00 |
READ NEXT:
Bohs go six clear as Declan Devine makes happy return to Derry City
Paul Townend shines on I Am Maximus to win first Boylesports Irish Grand National
Ken Doherty comes up short in World Championship qualification bid
Rachael Blackmore recovered from two falls to ride in Irish Grand National
Rory McIlroy withdraws from RBC Heritage after Masters disappointment
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
