Retiring Aspell eager to go out with a winner
No chance to break Cheltenham duck as jockey bows out for a second time
WHEN the jockeys in the Randox Health Grand National walk down the famous steps at Aintree in April, missing from their ranks will be dual race winner Leighton Aspell.
Though one of the senior members of the National Hunt weighing room, the 43-year-old took those at Kempton on Saturday by surprise after announcing he will retire from the saddle for a second time at Fontwell on Sunday.
Despite the Cheltenham Festival being just over two weeks away, the man raised in Narraghmore, Co Kildare, is happy to end a career that has produced hundreds of winners and will bow out aboard the Nick Gifford-trained Its not what you think in the bumper at the West Sussex track.
He said: ‘I hadn’t announced it to the lads in the weighing room and we were mucking around earlier and someone said, “You’ve got a few more years left”, and funnily enough I said, “I haven’t, as it is all coming to an end tomorrow”.
‘They thought I was joking, as I’ve done this once before. The reception has been great, there are some great guys in there.’
Having initially hung up his saddle in 2007, Aspell returned in 2009 – and it was during his second innings he enjoyed his finest moments, highlighted by back-toback Grand National wins aboard Pineau De Re in 2014 and Many Clouds 12 months later.
He said: ‘I went through a bit of a lull and quiet time coming into that summer (2007) and I thought it was time to do something else.
‘I had that 12 to 18 months out and I realised I made the wrong decision and I was lucky enough to step back into it and ride a lot more winners.
‘Winning the Nationals back-toback would be the highlight, along with the Hennessy (aboard Many Clouds), but I have had many other great winners for Oliver Sherwood and many other people like Lucy Wadham, Nick Gifford and Josh Gifford.’
Though Aspell is soon to be hanging up the saddle, he hopes to continue working within racing in the future.
‘I do some pre-training, but I’m very interested in the handicapping and race-reading side of stuff. I’d be very interested in a job along those lines,’ he said.
Despite Aspell ending his career without a Cheltenham Festival winner to his name, he is rightly proud of what he has achieved.
He said: ‘I’m going to die a Cheltenham Festival virgin. I’ve had plenty of rides there, but no winners. I’m very proud and I’m a very lucky man to have done it as long as I could and to still be getting the opportunity to ride good horses.’
Leading the tributes to Aspell was Oliver Sherwood, the man
who trained Many Clouds and supplied him with numerous other notable winners.
He said: ‘He told me a few days ago. When your mind’s made up like that there’s no point in trying to persuade him otherwise.
‘He’s 43, rising 44. We’ve had 16 pretty good years together.
‘We were counting up and he’s ridden nearly 250 winners for me. I think it’s one of the longer associations in National Hunt racing. As for highlights – it’s Many Clouds by a country mile. He was the only man who ever rode him or schooled him at home and rode him on a racecourse. That’s quite unique in this game.’
Dr Richard Newland may have only used Aspell on the odd occasion, but he will be forever thankful for what he did aboard Pineau De Re six years ago.
He said: ‘Leighton didn’t ride a lot for us, but he’s a superb horseman and on one very good day in April 2014 he did us a big favour.
‘I’ve a lot of time for Leighton and on the day of the Grand National he was brilliant. He was second in the National a few years before (on Supreme Glory, 2003). He was on the comeback trail then.’
Like many of his colleagues, champion jockey Richard Johnson was surprised at the decision.
Johnson said: ‘I was a bit shocked when I heard the news.
‘You were always worried about him as he was tough to get by and if he was behind you in a race you knew he would never give up, but he was just a very good horseman.’
Johnson expects to be back riding out in the coming week as he described his return to the saddle as ‘fairly imminent’.
The champion jockey has been on the sidelines since breaking his arm when unseated in a novice chase at Exeter on January 21.
Before his enforced absence, Johnson had been involved in a real tussle with Armagh man Brian Hughes in defence of his top rider title in Britain.
Johnson had notched 111 winners before his spill, while Hughes, who was due to ride at yesterday’s abandoned Newcastle meeting, has 130 victories to his credit.