When rider Phillip Parchment rode the Patrick Lynch-trained California Gold to victory in the last race on Saturday, December 30, 2023, it was the end of the bustling rider’s finest season in the saddle.

Parchment finished the year with 34 victories, ranking seventh in the jockeys’ championship behind first-time champion Reyan Lewis, who had 99 wins.

Parchment, who is also the head of the Jockeys’ Guild, has won two of the most prestigious three-year-old Classic events, the 1,000 Guineas with Mamma Mia and the Jamaica Oaks with the same Mamma Mia. Jason DaCosta, the 2023 champion, trains Mamma Mia.

Those two victories on Mamma Mia confirmed Parchment’s burgeoning image as a ‘big’ race rider, having previously won the Jamaica Derby on King Arthur and the Jamaica Oaks on Princess Annie. Both King Arthur and Princess Annie were trained by the late Wayne DaCosta.

Then came the Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes, the juveniles’ main event on Boxing Day 2023 and Parchment once again put on another magnificent performance in the saddle, this time aboard Intrestntimesahead.

He waited for the Jason DaCosta-trained Intrestntimesahead to pounce in the straight to seal victory and establish his standing as one of the best long-distance jockeys in the game right now.

By finishing in seventh position with 34 winners in 2023, Parchment probably, along with Raddesh Roman, and Roger Hewitt, is one of the leading lights for the title of most improved jockey.