Barry Geraghty, on Saint Roi, celebrates after winning the Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle Race at the Cheltenham Festival in March this year
LONDON: Former Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Barry Geraghty announced his retirement from jump racing on Saturday (Jul 11) at the age of 40.
Geraghty, who was Irish champion jump jockey in 2000 and 2004, is the second most successful rider in Cheltenham Festival history with 43 wins, behind only his compatriot Ruby Walsh, who quit the sport last year.
“A big thank you to my family, friends and everyone who has supported me over the last 24 years tonight I am happy to say I am announcing my retirement,” Geraghty wrote on Twitter.
“I’ve been blessed to have had a wonderful career and I’m looking to what the future holds.”
His major victories included the 2003 Grand National on Monty’s Pass, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2005 with Kicking King, and again in 2013 aboard Bobs Worth.
Geraghty rode five winners at Cheltenham in March, including in the Champion Hurdle on Epatante.
He returned from a broken leg last year but 12 months ago insisted that he was not considering retirement as he would “miss racing too much”.
But he has now brought his career to an end, over 23 years since claiming his first winner in January 1997.
