S’Manga Khumalo has emerged as the joint sixth best jockey in the world according to a rating system by Longines.
The system is based on points gathered in Longines’ top 100 ranked races in the world.
South Africa has four races ranked in the top 100 in the world at present, the L’Ormarins Queens Plate (joint 57th), The Champions Cup (joint 67th), the Hollywoodbets Durban July (joint 67th) and the WSB Met (joint 90th).
Three of these races have been run this season so far and Khumalo has won two of them, the Queen’s Plate and the July, and finished second in the other, the Met.
The system is obviously a tad skewed because jockeys based in certain countries have a lot more opportunity than others.
Neither does it take into account, for example, that Richard Fourie has won seven Grade 1s this season!
South African jockeys have proven themselves in no uncertain terms over the years and the like of Khumalo and Fourie would be high on any ladder chosen by a team of experts.
However, the Longines leader, New Zealander James McDonald, who rides in Australia, did not attain his position by fluke.
McDonald finished 3rd in the Longines’ rankings last year with 96 points behind Ryan Moore on 112 and William Buick on 104.
However, this year he is way out in front having won five of the world’s top 100 races, the All Aged Stakes at Randwick, the Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick, the Lightning Stakes at Flemington, the Rosehill Guineas at Rosehill and the TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick.
He thoroughly deserves to be touted as the world’s best as he rode three winners at the Royal Ascot meeting, including Nature Strip in the Group 1 Kings Stand Stakes, which is not a world top 100 race. That is no mean feat for a foreign jockey.
The full standings at present are:
| Jockey | 1st Place(s) |
2nd Place(s) |
3rd Place(s) |
1st Place Points |
2nd Place Points |
3rd Place Points |
Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James McDonald | 5 | 3 | 1 | 60 | 18 | 4 | 82 |
| Jim Crowley | 3 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| Vincent Ho | 2 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 6 | 4 | 34 |
| Flavien Prat | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 32 |
| Nash Rawiller | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 32 |
| Hugh Bowman | 2 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| S’manga Khumalo | 2 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| Irad Ortiz, Jr. | 2 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| Ryan L. Moore | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 30 |
| William T. Buick | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 28 |
| Lanfranco Dettori | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 28 |
| Christophe Patrice Lemaire | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 8 | 26 |
| Kazuo Yokoyama | 2 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Yuga Kawada | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| Joao Moreira | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| Jose L. Ortiz | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| Zac Purton | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| Jamie Lee Kah | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 4 | 22 |
| Joel Rosario | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 4 | 22 |
| Blake Shinn | 1 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 20 |
| Yutaka Take | 1 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 20 |
| Alexis Badel | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 18 |
| Gavin J. Lerena | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 18 |
| Mark Zahra | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 18 |
| Manuel Franco | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| Rob Hornby | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| Christophe Soumillon | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| Damian Lane | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 14 |
| John Michael Allen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Jason Richard Collett | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Shane M. Crosse | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Cristian Demuro | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| James Doyle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Yuichi Fukunaga | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Tyler Gaffalione | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Jorge Alejandro Gonzalez | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Craig J. Grylls | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Kenichi Ikezoe | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Colin Keane | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Richard Kingscote | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Sonny Leon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Kerrin McEvoy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Karis Teetan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Craig A. Williams | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Takeshi Yokoyama | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Hayato Yoshida | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Matthew Chadwick | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| Daniel Alexander Tudhope | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| Ryuji Wada | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| William James Lee | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| David Probert | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| William Andrew Pike | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| Hector I. Berrios | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Tim Clark | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Martin Joseph Dwyer | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Bernard Rene Fay d’Herbe | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Rachel King | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Julien R. Leparoux | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| K. C. Leung | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Ioritz Mendizabal | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Gavin M. Ryan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Rossa G. Ryan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Sam Ronald Frederic Weatherley | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Junior Alvarado | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Mickael Barzalona | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Regan Bayliss | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Matthew Cameron | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Ben M. Coen | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Pat Dobbs | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Jay William Ford | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Richard D. Fourie | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Antoine Hamelin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Yuji Hishida | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Fred Kersley | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Kohei Matsuyama | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
Picture: Candiese Lenferna
