On Sunday 25-year-old Thore Hammer-Hansen made history as the overall winner of the prestigious World All-Star Jockeys Championship in Japan. The competition, held over the weekend, brought together a number of the world’s best jockeys in a team contest, where Thore secured both the individual title and contributed to Team World’s victory over Japan.
World All-Star Jockeys is an annual international event organised by the Japan Racing Association (JRA), which brings riders together for a series of four races where points are awarded on the basis of placings. This year names such as Australia’s Craig Williams and South Africa’s Karis Teetan took part against a strong Japanese home team.
Thore won two of the races in the competition and was crowned the overall winner.
“It is an incredible feeling to win here in Japan. The Japanese fans are fantastic, and the track at Sapporo is a dream to ride,” Thore said after the prize-giving. Thore is only the second Germany-based jockey ever to win the title.
The young jockey, who is the son of Denmark’s Lennart Hammer-Hansen, is the defending champion jockey in Germany, and he is currently well on course for another championship. At present he is credited with 58 winners on the German tracks in 2025 – 19 more than Adrie de Vries in second place.
