JOCKEY PROFILE

Date of Birth: June 27, 1979

County of origin: Cork

First winner: Right'N'Royal (Michael O'Connor) Gowran Park, May 20, 1999

Final winner: Irish Point (Gordon Elliott) Aintree, April 15, 2023

Champion jockey: (3 times) 2011/12, 2012/13, 2017/18

Assoc. Trainers: Gordon Elliott  

Significant horses: Tiger Roll, Lord Windermere, Envoi Allen, Presenting Percy, Balko Des Flos, Solwhit, Zabana, Windsor Park, Don Cossack, Rule The World, Sir Des Champs, Weapons Amnesty, Jetson, Dedigout, Last Instalment, First Lieutenant, Roi Du Mee, Quito De La Roque, Un Atout, Mallowney, Prince Of Scars, Diamond King, Pittoni, Mansony, Forpadydeplasterer, Mega Fortune, Apple's Jade, Delta Work, The Storyteller, Ornua, Irish Point. 

Did you know?

From Youghal, County Cork, Davy Russell was one of the great National Hunt riders and he starred in a vintage era for Irish-based jump jockeys that also included Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty, Paul Carberry and Paul Townend. In a truly fantastic career, he was crowned champion jockey on three occasions, he was twice a Grand National winner on Tiger Roll and he also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Lord Windermere in 2014. Davy retired from the saddle in April 2023. In all, he rode 61 Grade 1 winners. 

He was crowned champion jockey for the first time in 2011/12 and retained his title the following season. He rode as the retained rider for Gigginstown House Stud from 2007 until he lost the position, famously over a cup of tea with Michael O'Leary, at Punchestown on New Year's Eve, 2013.

He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the Jim Culloty-trained Lord Windermere in 2014. Remarkably, Davy rode a winner at the Cheltenham Festival for 13 successive years beginning with the Philip Rothwell-trained Native Jack in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase in 2006. The sequence came to an end at the 2019 Festival but he was among the Festival winners again the following March.  

In all, Davy rode 25 Cheltenham Festival winners. He was leading rider at Cheltenham in 2018 with four winners. He rode three winners at the 2020 Festival but missed the 2021 renewal through injury and didn't ride a winner at the 2022 or the 2023 Festivals. At the time of his retirement, Davy was the joint-fifth winning most jockey since 1945 at the Festival.  

He won the 2018 Aintree Grand National on the Gordon Elliott-trained Tiger Roll and two weeks later was crowned champion jockey in Ireland for the third time with 119 winners. 

Davy and Tiger Roll wrote themselves into the record books when winning the Aintree Grand National for the second successive year in 2019. Tiger Roll became the first horse to achieve such a feat since Red Rum in 1973 and 1974 and was denied the chance of a historic three-in-a-row by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. 

Davy's first Grade 1 winner was the Arthur Moore-trained The Railway Man in the Dr P. J. Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown in January 2006. Fittingly, the final winner of his career also came in a Grade 1 race. He retired on the day he won the Turners Mersey Novices´ Hurdle on the Gordon Elliott-trained Irish Point at the Aintree Festival on April 15, 2023. It was his second "retirement" as he had previously hung up his boots when partnering Elliott's Liberty Dance to success at Thurles on Sunday, December 18, 2022 only to return to the saddle the following month to cover in the Elliott yard for the injured Jack Kennedy. 

Updated Wednesday, October 4, 2023.