Potts seize Power as their lead jockey after Gold Cup success on Sizing John

A FORTNIGHT after one of the biggest wins of his career, Robbie Power has landed the job as first jockey to leading owners Alan and Ann Potts.

Power rode Sizing John to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup for the Pottses, after suggesting that the horse should be stepped up from two miles, and now he has stepped into a new job as their retained jockey, which means he will be riding Finian’s Oscar and Fox Norton, both trained by Colin Tizzard, at Aintree next week.

Jessica Harrington, who took over training Sizing John earlier this season, will still have first call on Power, but he has been booked for the two Potts runners at Taunton today – Sizing Granite and Sizing At Midnight.

“Robbie will be my number one and will ride for me whenever he is available,” Alan Potts said to the Racing Post. “The thing that impressed me most about Robbie was that he told us what he was going to do before the Gold Cup and he went out and did it.”

Power, who rode three winners at the Cheltenham Festival, nearly had his career ended by an eye injury in a fall last summer and now wears special goggles to combat the double-vision he now suffers.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity and I have some very nice horses to look forward to,” he said. “It’s been a fantastic couple of weeks and let’s hope we can continue at Aintree the way we left off at Cheltenham.”

Labaik, the winner of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, is set to go under the hammer next Thursday. The previously recalcitrant grey will now be offered at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale which takes place after racing on the opening day of the Grand National meeting at Liverpool.