David Egan Has The ‘AMO’ To Take The Shots

David Egan is midway through his first year as retained jockey to AMO Racing and with the connections he is building, he is focused on hitting his career targets.

David Egan Has The ‘AMO’ To Take The Shots

David Egan is midway through his first year as retained jockey to AMO Racing and with the connections he is building, he is focused on hitting his career targets.

“IF YOU DON’T aim high, you don’t shoot high,” says David Egan.

There isn’t much of the ‘high’ about Catterick on a Wednesday afternoon, with total prize money of £41,150 across six races, even if the couple of thousand in attendance are enjoying the sport, which includes Egan hitting two of five shots in the pre-racing football shoot-out for charity.    

As Egan’s career aspirations go, winning a modest midweek handicap at the countryside North Yorkshire track wouldn’t usually be high on the list, but his job as a contracted rider for AMO Racing means the low-key venue has provided the stage for an uncommon shot at a career milestone.

Catterick is the only remaining racetrack in Britain without Egan’s name alongside a winner. Prince Maxi, a four-year-old gelding, sporting the AMO Racing purple for trainer George Scott, is Egan’s main hope this time for completing the full set of 59 tracks.

“I haven’t had many rides here, I don’t come here very often but I’m hoping this one will win,” he says.

The crowd of all ages mills back and forth past the weighing room, outside of which Egan has stopped to talk.

Completing the ‘set’ would be a nice box to tick, he agrees, but then Prince Maxi fades out to third after leading, and he draws a blank with all four of his rides. No full-set today.

Egan, recently turned 25, has much bigger ambitions. He already has a British Classic win thanks to Eldar Eldarov in the St Leger for his old boss Roger Varian, and his triple-G1-winning association with Mishriff that thrust him into worldwide prominence three years ago; he has ridden successfully in the Middle-East and the United States; and in the winter of 2022-23 he turned heads in Japan when he notched 19 wins, including the G2 Nikkei Shinshun Hai on Weltreisende, during a two-month contract, after debuting for the JRA (Japan Racing Association) at the 2022 World All-Star Jockeys.

Eldar Eldarov and David Egan win Irish St Leger
DAVID EGAN, ELDAR ELDAROV / G1 Irish St Leger // The Curragh /// 2023 //// Photo by Matt Browne
David Egan wins the G2 Nikkei Shinshun Hai on Weltreisende
DAVID EGAN, WELTREISENDE / G2 Nikkei Shinshun Hai // Chukyo /// 2023 //// Photo by JRA

But last year the impetus to push for the big rides on the big days had steadied a little in Europe, with the notable exception of Eldar Eldarov’s G1 Irish St Leger win.

Now, he believes the twin barrels of a two-year contract with AMO Racing and a new agent – replacing the ‘champion-maker’ Tony Hind – this season can help him achieve his high ambitions. The Group 1-winning rider was signed by Kia Joorabchian’s operation in December 2023 to be its number one retained jockey, and he has enjoyed a handful of notable wins for the team so far.

First came the famous old Lincoln Handicap on Mr Professor, then in May a pair of Group 3 wins with two of AMO’s best: Bucanero Fuerte and this season’s G1 Phoenix Stakes hopeful Arizona Blaze, both trained in Ireland by Adrian Murray. His overall strike rate is at around 12 percent for 37 wins in Britain so far this season.

“Strike Rate is pretty good,” he says. “I’ve got a new agent this year, Charlie Sutton, and he just does me and no one else, so we work well together. He’s someone I’ve been close with for a number of years, I worked with him at Roger Varian’s and he’s doing a great job since taking over; he has good rapport with the trainers.

“Outside of AMO racing connections, I’ve been able to ride winners for plenty of different people which is important.”

David Egan and Mr Professor
DAVID EGAN, MR PROFESSOR / William Hill Lincoln // Doncaster /// 2024 //// Photo by Nigel French

He has ridden 29 winners for 20 different trainers outside of his retainer, but AMO is a significant operation, with more than 60 individual runners in Britain already this season and 16 in Ireland. It’s no Coolmore or Godolphin, nor a Shadwell or a Juddmonte – he needs outside success as well if he is to make it all work – but his hope is that it brings in quality opportunities on the big days.

“The AMO retainer is a big plus as well because you know where you’re going quite a number of days out in advance, whereas if you’re working for a trainer maybe he might not decide where he’s going to run until closer to the day, but AMO Racing normally has a plan with their horses where they’re going to go. If I can commit to a meeting five or six days out at entry stage, I can pick up a nice couple of spare mounts that might lead to wins and more connections with new clients,” he explains.

As he speaks, he has the mid-summer glory of the Goodwood Festival in his sights. Days like those are the ones he aspires to succeed at, but this time around, his participation for AMO looks like being in handicaps, not Pattern races. Last year’s G1 Phoenix Stakes winner Bucanero Fuerte held an entry for the G2 King George Stakes, but he will be absent as he recovers from a setback.

“He did his first piece of work last week and we’re about to do a piece of work with him on the Curragh. No target just yet,” confirms Murray by phone two days later.

Then to the subject of Egan, who partnered the colt to a smart victory in the G3 Lacken Stakes in May before a Commonwealth Cup assault had to be aborted.

“He’s a top-class lad, a sound fella,” says Murray of the rider, whose father is the veteran jockey John Egan and his mother Sandra Hughes, former trainer, daughter of the late Dessie Hughes and sister to jockey-turned-trainer Richard Hughes.  

“His feedback is very good and that’s what I really like about him,” Murray continues. “He reads a race well and before he goes out there he has a plan of what he might do and he has a fair idea about every other horse in the race too. He’s very focussed.”

David Egan jockey
DAVID EGAN, MR PROFESSOR / Doncaster // 2024 /// Photo by Nigel French

Egan’s focus is always riding winners, he says. At Goodwood he has high hopes for AMO’s Tony Montana, third last time in the John Smith’s Cup Handicap at York. But he is ever aware of the long game and where he wants to reach: he has spoken previously about ambitions to be champion jockey one day, to be a regular go-to for horses with chances in Group 1 races, and he believes the AMO connection is a step that will take him there, even if the route is via blank days here and there at minnow race tracks. 

And the fact that Joorabchian has had a couple of high-profile splits with retained jockeys, Rossa Ryan two years ago and Kevin Stott last September, seems not to concern him.

“Kia is not afraid to roll the dice and run his horses in the deep end as well, and he’s proven his worth,” Egan says.

“I remember my first real association with Kia and AMO Racing was picking up a spare ride in the Derby on a maiden, Mojo Star, who was 50-1 and he went and finished second. They’ve shown that they’re not afraid of a challenge and that’s something I’ve always been ambitious with as well.”

Mojo Star’s valiant Derby effort wasn’t replicated this year with the unfortunate 50-1 shot Dallas Star who returned from his Derby run with a fractured hock and will return next year if all is well.

As for Egan’s mid-range plans, well, he rode last winter in Florida, and while a return to Japan would be welcomed in the future, he expects to be  back in America’s ‘Sunshine State’ when the months turn cold and dark at home.  

“I was riding for AMO Racing out there last winter but I picked up a lot of connections with other people there at Gulfstream Park as well and I’ll maybe go back there this year,” he says.

“I’m still young and I have no other distractions other than riding winners so I’ll aim to do that as much as I can.”

Perhaps that will include a milestone win at little old Catterick one of these days.

David Morgan is Chief Journalist at Idol Horse. As a sports mad young lad in County Durham, England, horse racing hooked him at age 10. He has a keen knowledge of Hong Kong and Japanese racing after nine years as senior racing writer and racing editor at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. David has also worked in Dubai and spent several years at the Racenews agency in London. His credits include among others Racing Post, ANZ Bloodstock News, International Thoroughbred, TDN, and Asian Racing Report.

View all articles by David Morgan.

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