GERAGHTY QUITS
End of an era for jumps hero Barry
BARRY GERAGHTY has announced his retirement from the saddle two months before his 41st birthday.
The news brings the career of one of jump racing’s finest jockeys to a sudden end, and leaves Geraghty’s boss JP McManus on the lookout for a new No 1 rider.
With 43 Cheltenham Festival triumphs – only Ruby Walsh with 59 has more – and a Grand National victory aboard Monty’s Pass in 2003, Co Meath-born Geraghty is one of the winter code’s most decorated horsemen.
But recent seasons have been blighted by injury and, Geraghty told his Sporting Index blog: “I’ve missed 18 months of the last five years, having broken both legs, both arms, my ribs, shoulder blade and a few other small fractures.
“The last injury, the leg break on the eve of the 2019 Grand National at Aintree, made me appreciate a scenario where I could go out on my own terms rather than being stretchered off.
“I’m 41 in September, and you can’t go on forever,” added Geraghty, who won Cheltenham Gold Cups aboard Kicking King (2005) and Bobs Worth (2013), and four Champion Hurdles, via Punjabi (2009), Jezki (2014), Buveur D’Air (2018) and Epatante (2020).
Jessica Harrington’s star Moscow Flyer launched Geraghty's career at the top table – the pair combined for 13 Grade 1 successes – before he joined Nicky Henderson as stable rider in 2008, succeeding SirAP McCoy as JP McManus’s No 1 jockey seven years later.
“He was a brilliant jockey,” said McCoy. “Riders like Barry Geraghty don’t come around too often.”