Saffie Osborne has taken the throne from Hollie Doyle

In Scandinavia we are fortunate to have plenty of talented female riders, and that prompted me to look at the leading ones in Britain. The spread is wide — the rider at the top has had 587 mounts this year, the one in tenth place 180 — and 2026 has brought a changing of the guard, with Saffie Osborne overtaking Hollie Doyle.

Saffie Osborne is now clearly out in front, and she made history on 12 September as the first female jockey to win a British Classic.

It came in the St Leger Stakes (Gr.1) at Doncaster — the 250th running of the race — where she won by two and a half lengths on the Joseph O’Brien-trained Highwayman (Persian King) at 11/1.

On 84 wins so far, the 24-year-old daughter of trainer Jamie Osborne is chasing a first century of winners in a season. Her best to date was 87 in 2024, and she has just sealed a third straight title as the Racing League’s leading rider.

Broke her leg

There is more to the changing of the guard than Osborne’s progress alone. Hollie Doyle, Britain’s leading female rider since 2019, broke her lower leg in a fall at Bath on 22 May and missed the whole summer — Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and York’s Ebor meeting alike.

She stands on 53 wins in 2026 against 98 last year and 126 in 2024, and only in mid-October could she look forward to sitting on a horse again.

Doyle’s best seasons remain without equal for a woman in British racing: 151 wins in 2020 and 152 in 2021. In 2022 she finished joint second in the overall British jockeys’ championship on 91 wins — the highest placing ever by a female rider — and in May last year she passed Hayley Turner’s record as the female jockey with the most wins in Britain.

The real sensation of the year, though, is the 17-year-old apprentice Myla Coppins, whose 22 wins from 139 rides give her a strike rate of 15.82 per cent. She turns 18 in January.

It is above all trainer Tony Carroll who has made use of Myla Coppins’ considerable talent.