Champion's worth not measured in only money

At last, the arguments can stop. The record books don’t lie: Jim Crowley is the best jockey in Britain. With 148 winners in the championship season, the Sussex Supremo has indisputably earned his place on the roll of honour alongside the riding giants of yore.

Except, as we know, this is not a universally held view. There are many different ways of measuring supremacy, and sheer weight of numbers has fallen out of fashion in the world of racing.

Weight of hard cash in a suitcase is regarded as the key indicator of quality these days, and sadly the new champion doesn’t have as much of that as many of his rivals.