Jockey Angle with Paddy Flood: 'As a jockey, this is why he's going to be champion. He's able to think so clearly on a horse's back'

On this week's episode of ‘The Jockey Angle', brought to you by William Hill, Paddy Flood reviews a perfect piece of riding from Billy Lee, another superstar emerges from Ballydoyle at Leopardstown and classy spot of riding from Jessica Stokes to secure a winner for her family at Limerick.

Race replays are FREE to watch from all Irish tracks and a selection of premier British tracks sponsored by William Hill.

Paddy Flood's Analysis

Billy Lee is going to be crowned champion jockey this year and watching a ride like this, you can see why.

They go very quick in this race. Very, very quick. These boys are setting pretty quick fractions.

You can see Shane Foley here in the yellow. He's struggling. His hands are up off that horse's neck and he's pulling hard. He's actually keeping him out on his own. So, he's trying to get the horse not to race.

If you watch Billy Lee here, he's in the pink and the purple. This is a flat race over a mile and Billy's basically given up six lengths. Just watch his body language the whole way through. He's riding like a man so happy in his own skin.

Billy has the wherewithal to actually take a look up and say, "Listen, this feels like it's going too quick. They're doing 38 miles an hour at that stage in the race." As a jockey, this is why he's going to be champion. He's able to think so clearly on a horse's back. Sometimes that's very hard to do because you worry and there's a lot to worry about in a race.

So, basically, getting the horse to the start nice and relaxed, getting the gates as quick as you can, getting into position, all that is going through your head. Then sometimes you can lose sight of the speed of the race, and you just worry about getting yourself into the position you thought would be the best position to win the race.

You're sitting in the weighing room going through the form. You'd say, "Right, I want to be third. I want to be fourth." And that sometimes can take over your judgment of the speed. But Billy is riding so well this year, he's so confident and happy in his own skin.

He's able to say, "You know what? I don't want to be a part of that speed. I want my horse to be in his own comfort zone. I want to be letting him breathe, not using that petrol early."

You can see here, he's not even giving him a little nudge. He's still riding to fractions. These horses are going that quick, they're now looking to fill their lungs with air.

Billy has filled his horse's lungs with air from the very start. He can just start to roll on forward and start catching them when they're trying to slow down and get some air into their lungs. He has his lad full.

But I just love this. He still hasn't committed at the two-pole. He's after giving away that much ground and was able to get a horse in that good of a rhythm.

They're saying even at this stage, "Come on, Billy. Come on now. It's time to go." But he's just timed this to absolute perfection.

That horse is going to go home a happy horse. And happy horses win races. That's how horses improve, is that when they get that good of a ride, that horse is going home thinking, "You know what? Racing is easy." And the next day he goes to run, he's going to have no stress, no panic about it.

It's a stark contrast to a horse going flat out from the start and a jockey getting fully stuck into them and slowing down at the line. Then they've had a hard race. This guy's hitting his top speed at the line, and that's just the perfect, perfect ride from the champion elect.