Mick Fitzgerald to retire

Leading jump jockey Mick Fitzgerald is to retire at the end of the season.

One of the elite band of riders to win both the Grand National on Rough Quest (1996) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on See More Business (1999) – Fitzgerald, 36, has decided to bring the curtain down on a glittering career at the top that spans almost 20 years.

A new venture will see him become director of an exclusive racing club.

Fitzgerald has also won most of the other major prizes in National Hunt racing, including the 1999 King George VI Chase at Kempton on See More Business.

And he has a host of victories to his name at the Cheltenham Festival.

Among those are the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Call Equiname (1999), the Stayers’ Hurdle on Bacchanal (2000) and the Arkle Trophy on Tiutchev.

Despite not ever being champion, Fitzgerald is one of the six winning-most jump jockeys of all time with well over 1,000 winners.

Fitzgerald has been stable jockey to Nicky Henderson for over 10 years and their partnership has been one of the most successful in recent times. Only last season they enjoyed a double at Cheltenham with Fondmort in the Ryanair Chase and Non So in the Mildmay of Flete.

They have also been a most formidable combination at Newbury, winning the Tote Gold Trophy three times with Sharpical (1998), Geos (2000) and Landing Light (2001) and teamed up last season to lift the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup with Trabolgan.