Luke Morris rides 2000th UK winner

He passed the impressive milestone with a winner aboard Colors Of Freedom for trainer Archie Watson at Southwell racecourse on Tuesday evening. It brings Morris full circle as it’s the same track where he had his first winner on 22nd November 2005.

Morris, 34, joins only six other current riders in Great Britain who have achieved the same feat, champion jockeys Ryan Moore, Frankie Dettori (also a QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Famer), Jamie Spencer, Jim Crowley and Paul Hanagan, while Joe Fanning is the other jockey to surpass the mark.

The Newmarket-based jockey has started 2023 with a bang and it follows on from an unbelievable 2022, in which Morris paired up with Alpinista to win three Group 1s across Europe for trainer Sir Mark Prescott: the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at Saint-Cloud, Paris; the Darley Yorkshire Oaks at York; and the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, Paris. The heroic performance from the pair in the latter has forever cemented their places in racing history and took their run of consecutive Group 1s to six, having previously won three in Germany in 2021.

Morris said: “Year in year out I try to have as many winners as I can, so to reach 2,000 winners, I am immensely proud. I am very lucky to have lots of loyal contacts, great trainers and owners as well as an understanding family who have always supported me. This something that I’ve wanted to do since I was six and they’ve been supportive since the very start. Now I have a young son Henry, it makes life different, but my partner Molly is very good at steering the ship while I’m all over the country.

“I set myself a goal every year to ride 100 winners and hopefully ride a Group 1. Luckily, it’s worked out quite well for me so far but you have to keep your work ethic every year and keep your head down. I’ve always been ambitious and I hope that will stay with me for a long time.”

British career highlights for Morris include victory in the 2017 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York with Marsha, taking Morris’ QIPCO British Champions Series winners total to two. Additionally, he had a Royal Ascot winner in the 2016 Norfolk Stakes with Prince Of Lir for trainer Robert Cowell.

Morris continued: “Of the British winners, Marsha winning the Nunthorpe and Alpinista in the Yorkshire Oaks are very much my highlights. They were special days, especially winning them for Sir Mark and loyal owners in the Elite Racing Club and Miss Rausing. Those were two great days and I’m very much hoping there will be plenty more days like that. You just hope that the ball keeps rolling year in year out and just keep the number tally very high.”

Racing since 2005, he had his first winner in the November of the same year with Caerphilly Gal for trainer Patrick Gilligan. Morris has been a picture of consistency since, surpassing a century of winners each year for the past 12 years. Often labelled as Britain’s busiest jockey, he’s had over 1,000 rides a year since 2010, racking up a total of 19,227 career rides.

Sir Mark Prescott has been an integral part of Morris’ success, providing quantity as well as quality. He has been the training force behind 366 of the jockey’s winners, equal to 18% of his total career winners. Overall, Morris has ridden for 573 trainers, winning for 245 of them.

In addition to his high-profile wins, it is his constant dedication to riding winners on the Flat that has helped him achieve this milestone. The All-Weather tracks have proven to be the most fruitful for Morris in his career so far with Wolverhampton providing the most winners with 439, followed by Lingfield (315) and Kempton (281). This success on the All-Weathers has translated into titles with Morris winning six All-Weather championships.

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