LAST Sunday was a busy day on the international sports scene: Kildare-born jockey Robbie Dolan landed the Melbourne Cup, Dutch Formula 1 racing driver Max Verstappen took the São Paolo Grand Prix and Offaly’s Darragh Kenny won the five-star GNP Seguros Grand Prix in Monterrey with VDL Cartello.

All great sporting achievements. Again, like last week’s comparison between the three Olympic equestrian sports, there’s a vast scale and difference in prize money and financial benefits on the international sporting circuits.

Prize money is a yardstick. The caveat in mentioning figures is that money doesn’t necessarily go to the jockey, rider or athlete in part, if at all. In equestrian sports, it’s the owners, the syndicates, stud farms and businesses that reap the bulk of financial rewards for their investments.

Top jockeys may have contracts with a prominent owner or trainer, but for most, their bread-and-butter income are riding fees per race.

According to Horse Racing Ireland budget guidelines, jockey fees range from €188.34 (Flat) to €215.25 (National Hunt) per race.

A share of prize money is another income source and, as an example provided for a €10,000 race win, a jockey with an agent and valet, would also receive a net total of €391.02 in prize money, on top of the race fee.

Formula 1 drivers are employed by race teams – race teams receive the Grand Prix prize money, not the winning driver. Although, of course there are bonuses, coupled with sponsorship and, in the social media era, endless endorsement opportunities, for them.

In the sport horse world, bonuses, horse sales, sponsorship, sales commissions, retainers and endorsements are other means for top riders to earn a living, apart from possible prize money shares.

Post-2015 earnings

So, with the proviso that prize money won by dressage, eventing and show jumping riders is merely a benchmark method, how much have the current top-ranked riders won? And have any broken the magic seven-figure sum?

We’ll take a look at the Hippomundo database. Since 2015, their rankings have recorded the prize money won per horse, rider, stallion, studbook, country etc.

Other organisations, such as the Fédération Equestre International (FEI) or the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH), determine their rankings by points.

Rankings for the Longines Global Champions Tour, founded by Jan Tops, are determined by both points and prize money. Another lucrative payday on the international show jumping circuit awaits with the upcoming LGCT play-offs in Riyadh (November 20th-23rd).

Back to the Hippomundo rankings – have there been any changes in the top-10 since last week’s article?

No, although Darragh Kenny has cemented his seventh place amongst the top-10 show jumping riders with his Mexican Grand Prix win (see page 89).

Darragh Kenny, pictured on VDL Cartello jumping in the Aga Khan Nations Cup at the 2024 Dublin Horse Show, is the top-earning Irish rider since 2015 \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Martin Fuchs retains his leading rider place, having won €1,765,333 so far this year, with less than two months remaining.

Fuchs and Connor Jei won the Dublin Grand Prix in August (€165,000) and the following month at Spruce Meadows, the Swiss rider recorded his biggest payday, when Leone Jei’s Grand Prix win netted €661,131.

That back-to-back Spruce Meadows win, again with the Baltic VDL gelding, has contributed to Fuchs prize money tally since 2015 of €11.45 million.

Fuchs is one show jumping rider to break the magic €10 million barrier; any others on the current Hippomundo top-10?

Germany’s Daniel Deusser has moved up one place in the past week and now stands in ninth place (€1,096,225) in the current rankings.

However, Deusser is the overall top-earner of this group, having won €13.56 million since 2015. That’s mostly due to the phenomenal money earner Killer Queen VDM (Eldorado van de Zeshoek).

Transatlantic totals

Two American riders, both in the current top-10, rank next-highest. McLain Ward’s balance stands on €11,571,499, just ahead of compatriot Kent Farrington (€11,492,416).

HH Azur (Thunder van de Zuuthoeve), Gazelle (Kashmir van Schuttershof) and Voyeur (Tolano van’t Rietfhof) are the leading horses that earned the most for the American pair since the Hippomundo rankings began.

Any more €10 million-plus riders in the latest top-10? Yes, and again no surprise to see both Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann (€10,758,178) and Swiss ace Steve Guerdat (€10,484,500) join this elite group.

Crowd favourite King Edward (Edward 28) has won €3,762,834 over the past decade with von Eckermann, while Nino des Buissonnets (Kannan) kicked off the first year of the Hippomundo rankings with a major Grand Prix win on home ground at Geneva.

His London Olympic individual gold medal winner retired at the same show the following year. This left the high-calibre likes of Albführens Bianca (Balou du Rouet), bred in Sweden by Tipperary man Eamon Hickey, Venard du Cerisy (Open Up Semilly) and Paris Olympics individual silver medal-winning mare Dynamix de Belheme (Grafton) to keep up the Guerdat strike rate.

There is no prize money at the Olympic Games, so keeping these horses earning on the international circuit and in line for Olympic selection and Nations Cup duties, requires considerable planning and commitment.

Top-10 since 2015

How much prize money have Irish riders won since 2015? Two Irish riders are currently in the Hippomundo top-10: Conor Swail (third) and Darragh Kenny (eighth), with Count Me In and VDL Cartello rating as their latest top horses.

What about total prize money since 2015? Kenny tops this one. At €8,737,038, he is within striking range during his career of exceeding that €10-million mark.

Next comes the late Con Power’s protégé Bertram Allen, who has won €7,636,019 from 2015 onwards, with the likes of Pacino Amiro (Pacino), Hector van d’Abijhoeve (Cabrio Z) and Molly Malone V (Kannan).

Pacino Amiro, bred by Simon Scott, is Allen’s star performer with €2,155,857 in prize money to date. Their stellar career gave Allen’s fellow Wexford man and former Army Equitation School officer Power much to be proud of.

Bertram Allen, pictured with Pacino Amiro (ISH) on the winning Irish team at CHIO Aachen, has won €7,636,019 from 2015 onwards according to Hippomundo \ Tomas Holcbecher

Conor Swail is also on the €7 million-plus mark (€7,386,810). Alongside Count Me In, his other star earners are Casturano (Castelan 3), Vital Chance de la Roque (Diamant de Semilly) and his big Spruce Meadows winner in 2016: Märtha Louise (Maloubet de Pleville).

Three out of the overall top-four earning Irish riders are based in America and Shane Sweetnam completes this group.

No prizes for guessing that the Patrick Connolly-bred James Kann Cruz (Kannan, €1,412,908) has contributed significantly to the Kanturk-born rider’s tally of €6,073,889.

Chaqui Z (Chacco Blue) was Sweetnam’s best money earner in the pre-James Kann Cruz era.

Back in Europe, Denis Lynch (€5,723,431) also ranks high on the Irish riders’ prize money leaderboard.

Aside from his current top earner Vistogrand (Fantaland), his other big money horses in Hippomundo history are Brooklyn Heights (Nabab de Reve), GC Chopin’s Bushi (Contendro II) and Chablis (Couleur Rubin).

Hopping back across the Atlantic, Daniel Coyle’s meteoric rise in rankings has been matched by prize money (€4,584,668). Again, little surprise to see that the brilliant Legacy (Chippendale Z) is his main prize money contributor.

Similarly, Mark McAuley’s great partnership with the Denis Hickey-bred GRS Lady Amaro (Amaretto D’Arco) brings his prize money total to €3,153,586.

Cian O’Connor (€2,996,311) is another main Irish earner in the rankings and Nations Cup stalwart. Amongst his top bread-winners since 2015 are Fancy de Kergane (Berdenn de Kergane), Maurice (Thunder van de Zuuthoeve), Kilkenny (VDL Cardento) and Good Luck (Canturo).

Two more Irish show jumping riders have earned in excess of €2 million, according to the Belgian database: Michael Pender, the youngest rider on this list (€2,678,416) and Jordan Coyle (€2,242,524).

Pender’s top horse is, of course, HHS Calais (Cavalier Royale). The Ita Brennan-bred topped up his lifetime earnings by another €99,000 after their Grand Prix win at the League of Nations Cup final in Barcelona. HHS Los Angeles (Le Roi) is another leading light in Pender’s string.

For Gold (For Fashion) has won €609,375 to date, making the 13-year-old gelding one of Jordan Coyle’s best horses.

Dressage/eventing – poor relations?

As we saw in last week’s article, show jumping is the most lucrative of the three sports. Do any dressage or eventing riders come close to matching those kind of figures?

Not quite, but two German riders have exceeded the €2 million mark in their respective sports.

In the dressage world, Isabell Werth has won €2,704,678 over the past decade, as well as a slew of gold medals. Two more dressage riders – her compatriot, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (€1,441,847) – and Sweden’s Patrick Kittel (€1,320,923) have also exceeded €1 million in prize money.

Werth is associated with a stream of star earners on the international dressage circuit within this timeframe, including DSP Quantaz (Quaterback), Bella Rose (Belissimo NRW) and Weihegold OLD (Blue Hors Don Schufro).

The now-retired and much-garlanded TSF Dalera BB (Easy Game) will always be associated with von Bredow-Werndl, however, Unee BB (Gribaldi) was a very useful performer before ‘dancing Dalera’ came on the scene.

Kittel’s current top-earning horse is Touchdown (Quaterback).

The second German household name to break the €2 million mark is Michael Jung (€2,198,461), a figure that sees him as the best earner amongst eventing riders, according to Hippomundo.

In addition to a haul of Olympic, world and European championship medals, Jung is also adept at winning five-star events. Just seven of them around the world, but these offer the best prize money by far on the eventing circuit.

Jung also became only the second rider in the sport of eventing to win the Rolex Grand Slam bonus (Pippa Funnell being the other), which also contributed to his tally.

The brilliant La Biosthetique Sam FBW (Stan The Man) won Burghley (2015) and Badminton (2016) for Jung, fischerRocana recorded a Kentucky treble (2015-2017) and fischerChipmunk FRH also had a successful Lexington raid, winning in Kentucky in 2022.

Oliver Townend (€1,535,435) and Tim Price (€1,174,752) are two more five-star specialists, a track record which also sees them join Jung as the only eventing riders in the past decade to win over a million euros in prize money.

Townend’s five-star success and Hippomundo rankings are largely due to Irish Sport Horses, a list headed by the supreme Ballaghmor Class (Courage II), a winner at Burghley (2017, 2023), Kentucky (2021) and this year’s Maryland International champion.

He has won Kentucky CCI5*-L on three other occasions: back-to-back wins with two more Irish Sport Horses: Cooley Master Class (Ramiro B. 2018, 2019) and again this year with Cooley Rosalent (Valent).

Another Irish Sport Horse winner at Burghley was Ringwood Sky Boy (Courage II) in 2018 for Tim Price, who has also won Maryland International CCI 5*-L.

He won there in 2022 with Coup de Couer Dudevin (Top Gun Semilly) and notched up more prize money at five-star level with Vitali (Contender) and Wesko (Karandasj).

Other recent six-figure earners in the eventing world also include Ros Canter (€773,808), Christopher Burton (€682,759), Ingrid Klimke (€658,373), Piggy March (€646,115), Jonelle Price (€555,679), Gemma Stevens (€545,873) and Tom McEwen (€545,589).

Again, the gap between show jumping and the other two sports can be seen with this snapshot of top-earning riders across all three disciplines.

“A diesel horse” – that’s how we describe the reliable performer whose prize money is used to top up the lorry with fuel for the road home after a show or event.

There’s quite a number of formidable ‘diesel horses’ listed above, whose results have also placed their riders in the most elite group in the sport horse world.

DID YOU KNOW

  • Darragh Kenny is the leading Irish rider in the Hippomundo prize money rankings (2015 to date). So, who are the other top-earning dressage and eventing Irish riders? Judy Reynolds (€213,455) and Austin O’Connor (€194,204), whose biggest prize money hauls were courtesy of Vancouver K (Broere Jazz) and Colorado Blue (Jaguar Mail).
  • Just Oliver Townend and Isabell Werth have exceeded €200,000-plus prize money so far this year, with just over 50 days remaining. 11 show jumping riders, from Martin Fuchs to Christian Kukuk, have won over one million euros so far this year.
  • Unlike back in Con Power’s Dream Team era, Nations Cup riders now receive prize money. For example, each member of the fourth-placed Irish team in the Nations Cup league final in Barcelona won €36,500.
  • Traditionally, there has never been prize money within the GAA, although players can benefit from endorsements and car deals. JP McManus even brought the Limerick hurling squad on holidays to Barbados. Still a far cry from Premier League footballers and golfers on the LIV Tour.
  • Beezie Madden is the only US woman to make the Hippomundo top-10 show jumping riders rankings. Her earnings since 2015? €5,254,761.

    • By the numbers

    $1.8 billion – Tiger Woods earnings since 1996, between pro golf prize money, sponsorship and endorsements.

    $242 million – four-year contract signed by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, making him the highest-paid American football player in NFL history.

    £173 million – Football legend Ronaldo’s reported annual salary with Al Nassr football club in Saudi Arabia.

    A$8,560,000/€5,206,000 – Melbourne Cup prize fund.

    €122,500 – per each of the four victorious German riders in the Longines League of Nations Cup final at Barcelona.

    €78,704 – VDL Cartello’s earnings in last Sunday’s Monterrey Grand Prix.