Billy Lee from 1994 Castletown Donkey Derby to Ireland’s champion jockey elect

Ireland’s champion jockey elect Billy Lee.

The 40-year-old from Limerick is on the brink of becoming the oldest first-time champion flat jockey in almost 50 years.

A 1994 Castletown Donkey Derby has become one of Ireland’s most-watched YouTube videos, with nearly two million views. In that event, a seven-year-old Billy Lee lost out to his older sister on a reluctant mule named Percy.

Three decades later, Lee stands at the top of the Irish flat racing standings with three weeks of the 2026 season remaining. He holds a 17-winner lead over six-time champion Colin Keane, and the title will be decided at the Curragh on November 1.

A late-blooming champion

If Lee secures the championship, he will become the oldest first-time title winner since Tommy Murphy in 1978. Across the Irish Sea, another young Irish rider, 20-year-old Billy Loughnane, is poised to claim Britain’s crown as the youngest champion in over a century.

Lee’s success has come through steady graft rather than major stable support. He has finished runner-up to Keane on three occasions, most painfully by three winners in 2022 after a whip suspension cost him the final two days of the season.

Consistency over flash

This season Lee has partnered more than 600 runners, roughly 80 more than any other rider, and has ridden for more than 50 different trainers. At the Galway Festival he claimed the leading-jockey award with seven wins for six different yards, including one for Willie Mullins.

His most recent big payday came in the Goffs Million, where his share of the first prize added to almost three million euros earned for owners in 2026 alone. Although he has only four Group One wins, Lee has long been the reliable choice for mid-sized stables in major handicaps and pattern races.

Early steps and setbacks

Lee began as an apprentice with Tommy Stack at 14 and rode his first winner two years later at Sligo. He briefly tried National Hunt racing, winning a Listed hurdle at Haydock as a teenager, before concentrating on the flat.

Injuries and timing have often worked against him. Last year a collarbone break at Limerick forced him out for four weeks at a crucial stage. This year both Lee and Keane are currently suspended, but Lee’s lead looks secure unless something extraordinary occurs.

His first Group One success came in 2014 aboard Fiesolana in the Matron Stakes. A recent Listed win for Charlie Appleby and Godolphin at Dundalk suggests wider recognition may be growing.

Family roots in racing

Lee comes from a farming background in West Limerick. His mother trained a few horses and point-to-pointers, and two sisters also hold training licences. He learned his craft on the pony racing circuit, where he rode 60 winners.

Should the title be confirmed on November 1, Lee will have completed a journey that began on a reluctant mule in Castletown 32 years ago.

Source: irishmirror.ie