Jack Kennedy Champion Jockey © Photo Healy Racing
Irish Champion Jump Jockey Jack Kennedy lets his riding do the talking. One of Ireland’s most gifted yet most laid-back horsemen, Kennedy is widely respected in the racing industry - none more so than by his boss Gordon Elliott.
The Cullentra trainer speaks of his stable jockey with genuine pride and affection, describing him as ‘incredible’ and recently stating: ‘you won’t find anyone with a bad word to say about Jack’. When Kennedy won the 2023/24 jump jockeys’ championship, an emotional Elliott said it had been the target for Jack since he was 16.
Kennedy is quiet and unassuming in character but his brilliance in the saddle and his cool head have helped him rise to the top. Kennedy is arguably one of the best jump jockeys to come out of Ireland and you would struggle to find anyone who would refute that.
Racing is full of ups and downs and twists and turns and it has been a bumpy ride to success for Jack Kennedy, who has endured multiple leg and collarbone breaks leading to long spells on the sidelines. Kennedy remains unfazed and this admirable resilience has proven to be one of his biggest strengths.
Jack Kennedy is from Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland. He began riding ponies as a young child and soon became a star on the pony racing circuit, securing 221 victories in total. He was just 16 years of age when he entered the professional world of horse racing.
Kennedy’s first professional win came aboard Funny How on the flat at Cork on May 22, 2015 at the age of 16 for trainer Pat Flynn.
Kennedy has forged a successful and enduring relationship with Gordon Elliott, one of Ireland's top National Hunt trainers. Under Elliott's guidance, Kennedy has piloted multiple Grade 1 winners, including the Irish Gold Cup aboard Delta Work in 2020 as well as the Savills Chase three times on Outlander in 2016, Delta Work in 2019 and Conflated in 2022.
In 2017, Kennedy’s name was lit up across the seas as his first Cheltenham Festival success came aboard Labaik at the age of 17 in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Jack Kennedy aboard Labaik© Photo Healy Racing
Among his many achievements, in 2021 he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup aboard Minella Indo aged 21 making him the youngest jockey to win UK racing’s blue riband event.
Kennedy's remarkable career reached another significant milestone in the 2023—2024 racing season when he was crowned Irish Champion Jump Jockey. His previous attempts to become Champion had been thwarted by injury. Elliott provided Kennedy with 112 of his 123 winners that season.
On October 6, 2023, Kennedy secured his 500th career wins on Yeats Star in Downpatrick.
Over the past five years, Kennedy has amassed over €9 million in prize money.
Jockeys typically take around 7% of prize money earnings.
Jack Kennedy’s earnings for the past five years:
The Gold Cup held at the Cheltenham Festival is the most prestigious race of the national hunt season in the UK. A race everyone wants to win. Kennedy became the youngest jockey to win the race aboard Henry de Bromhead’s Minella Indo.
Minella Indo and Jack Kennedy win the Cheltenham Gold Cup© Photo Healy Racing
It was a textbook ride from Kennedy who joined the leader 4 fences out before heading the field three out and pulling two lengths ahead at the final fence. Stablemate A Plus Tard attempted to reel him in but Kennedy and Minella Indo powered up the hill to record a comfortable victory. A delighted Kennedy exclaimed it ‘was the best day of his life’.
Kennedy, aged 18, was aboard the Gordon Elliot-trained Robin Des Mana at Clonmel when recording an astonishing victory. The 6-year-old pecked on landing after a fence catapulting Kennedy out of the saddle, who was left clinging to the horse’s neck with both feet nearly touching the ground.
Kennedy used his enviable skill and managed to pull himself back on to the horse mid-gallop swinging his leg back over the saddle. He galvanised his mount to secure a narrow victory.
Kennedy spoiled the party for Aintree Grand National winner Tiger Roll and his legion of fans in the 2022 Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival when his game mount, Delta Work, saw off his stablemate by a three quarters of a length.
Both approaching the last together, Kennedy had edged quietly closer throughout the race and managed to find a bit more up the hill to win the prize, beating Tiger Roll on his final swansong.
