DAVID EGAN won a whopping £65,000 PER SECOND after storming to victory in the world’s richest race.
The 21-year-old jockey collared favourite Charlatan to land the £14million Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz racecourse in Riyadh.
Delighted dad John – also a jockey and still going strong at 52 – was on hand to celebrate his son bagging one of sport’s most lucrative prizes.
And there was royalty watching on too, with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, in the stands.
All in all Egan earned connections of the John Gosden-trained four-year-old – last year’s French Derby winner – a whopping £7.3m.
Of course jockeys only get a cut of the eventual pay.
But even so that equalled a massive cheque of just under £750,000 for the jockey from Kildare, Ireland.
Egan is the retained rider of Prince Faisal, a member of the Saudi royal family, whose total net worth is thought to be a staggering £1trillion.
And he said after his career-defining win: “It’s unbelievable, I’ve been waiting all my life to ride a winner in a race like this. It’s a privilege to be connected to such a class horse.
“I always felt last year in the Derby if he hadn’t missed the break he would have won so this is redemption for him.
“It was really important to get a good jump today. I didn’t expect that he was going to be able to travel so well behind the leaders.
“It took him a little while to get going but then he ran them home.”
The incredible riches on offer did not stop at Egan and Gosden though.
Even the horse that came tenth, Derevo, took home £144,000.
Gosden, watching on from his Newmarket base, said: “What a brave horse. He had to have a lot of courage.
“David rode a positive race and he basically outstayed the American horses in the end.
“He got stuck in horrible, bottomless ground at Ascot last time, otherwise he has a superb record.
“I would have loved to have been there, but I didn’t fancy being put in a hotel and the bottom of Heathrow runway for ten days when I got back!”
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