Declan Cannon having career year

At age 36, after eight years of riding in North America, the jockey Declan Cannon came into this year decently established on the Kentucky circuit. Before the global COVID-19 pandemic laid low most of the racing world, Cannon, a native of Ireland, had made steady year-to-year progress, hitting a peak in 2019 with 66 winners and $2.6 million purse earnings. In 2022, Cannon rode 24 winners, with his 290 mounts earning purses just short of $1.5 million. No one could have foreseen what 2023 would bring.

After riding the Nov. 19 card at Churchill Downs, Cannon had 77 winners from 544 mounts with purse earnings of $5.5 million. Six weeks left in 2023 and Cannon already has blown far, far past his best season. Only 38 North American jockeys have higher earnings.

“It’s been an unbelievable year, really,” Cannon said. “I had a really good Turfway meet and a decent Keeneland [in April], and it’s just gotten better from there. My business has been consistently good all year. I wanted to ride seven days a week. I was hungry.”

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Riding in Kentucky, where purses have gone through the roof, has been a boon for Cannon. At the short Kentucky Downs meeting late this summer, Cannon won four races and earned $1.37 million in purses.

Cannon is represented by the agent and former jockey Julio Espinoza. One Australian trainer, Brian Lynch, and two from Ireland, Brendan Walsh and Eddie Kenneally, have been his strongest backers this year. Cannon has ridden 20 winners during 2023 for Walsh, nine for Kenneally.

Cannon, who is married with a child and resides in Louisville, was born and raised on a small cattle and sheep farm in County Leitrim in northwest Ireland, a drive of a couple hours from the heart of Irish Thoroughbred country, County Kildare. No racehorses in his childhood, but Cannon started riding on a nearby farm, graduating to galloping steeplechasers at the beach. That led to Cannon attending the Racing Academy and Centre of Education, a jockey school at the Irish National Stud, and a subsequent apprenticeship with the recently retired Irish trainer Kevin Prendergast.

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Cannon came to America late in 2015, a move that now is paying off handsomely. Cannon will be based again this winter at Turfway Park but said he’ll be making trips to Fair Grounds to ride stakes races. Badly injured in a spill during September 2021, Cannon has come all the way back – and then some.

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