Tom Scudamore announces retirement from race riding

“I don’t feel sad, I don’t feel relief really, I just feel very proud of what I’ve achieved. I was given a deck of cards, and I feel I played them in the best possible way I could. I would have loved to have won a Gold Cup, I’d have loved to win a Grand National, I’d have loved to be champion jockey, but those weren’t in my deck of cards. But every card I had I played to the best of my ability.

“Riding Thistlecrack and Next Sensation were two of the horses I look back on with lots of pride and satisfaction as they gave me some great moments in the saddle. But the thing I’m probably most proud about was the longevity and strength of my working relationship with David Pipe.

“I could count on one hand the amount of arguments we’ve had. He left it to me to ride the horses and we had such a good working relationship. I had a few offers along the way but I was never going to leave.

“I rode 150 winners in one season and only nine jockeys have ever done that. Things like that give me enormous pride.

“My first winner was Nordic Breeze for Martin Pipe at Warwick in 1998, just after I’d finished my GCSEs. I remember sitting in the weighing room being in awe of AP McCoy, Jamie Osborne, Richard Dunwoody and Adrian Maguire. They were the top jockeys at the time, and I think that generation of jockeys is the best I’ve seen.

“I’m going to miss lots of things about the weighing room, I like to think I get on with most of the jockeys, and I will miss the valets a lot, what they do and how they conduct themselves. They have my utmost admiration.

“There are so many people to thank. My grandfather was a huge inspiration to me. I spent so much time with him in my teens and he was an incredible person to learn off. My dad has always been my hero, I’ve always wanted to emulate him.

“I want to thank Martin Pipe who I first went to work for. He didn’t just teach me about horses, he taught me about life. They’ve produced so many top jockeys, the likes of Rodi Greene, Jamie Moore, Tom Bellamy, Tom Cannon, Danny Cook, Connor O’Farrell, Gordon Elliott, the list goes on and on. It’s a great credit to Martin and David and everyone at Pond House, I want to thank them all.

“I’m going to let the dust settle. I would like to stay in racing in some capacity. I have some media commitments and I’m enjoying working with Coral as an ambassador, so I’m excited about the future.

“Everything I’ve achieved, everything I’ve done, I wouldn’t have done any of it without the support of my family – my wife and my three daughters. It’s all because of them. They’ve had to put up with a lot. Going to events on their own without me or picking me up at two o’clock in the morning from hospital. They’ve never complained and they’ve allowed me to achieve everything I have.”

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