Legendary jockey Robbie Power has announced that he will retire after racing at the Punchestown festival tomorrow.
Power announced his intention to retire shortly after riding Magic Daze to victory in The Bective Stud Champion Novice Hurdle.
Speaking to Katie Walsh on RTE immediately after the race, Power said "I'll wear these colours on Teahupoo tomorrow and that will be it."
"It's been torture the last couple of months with the hip pain."
"There's been so many people that have helped me along the way to get me though and Hannah (his wife) has been very understanding because I've been fairly grumpy at times."
Power, 40, has been plagued by injury in recent years. Having returned from a lengthy absence with a back injury in January 2021 he was then out between October last year and January 2022 when he fractured his hip.
Winners have been hard to come by since his return – but he almost went out in style when finishing second in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Minella Indo.
He looked as good as ever on Henry de Bromhead’s Magic Daze in the Pigsback.com Handicap Chase, but confirmed his final ride will be on Gordon Elliott’s Teahupoo in the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle.
Power has already saddled two winners at Punchestown this week to close out a career highlighted by victories in the Aintree Grand National on Silver Birch, the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Sizing John and the BoyleSports Irish Grand National on Our Duke.
Speaking to Leon Blanche of BoyleSports from the County Kildare track on Thursday, Power said:
“It’s a relief because I’ve been thinking about it for the past while. I’ve been plagued with injury over the last year and the last couple of months have been hard work with the pain.
"It was great to ride a winner here, I rode my first winner at Punchestown and now it’s guaranteed my last one will be at Punchestown too.
“There was never any time when I returned from injury that I wanted to retire, even after my eye injury in 2016. But when I lay on the ground in Tramore in October after fracturing my hip it entered my mind that it was time to go.
"I didn’t want to go out on a fall at Tramore, so I had to fight to get back and go out on some sort of high. It’s been a fantastic career with a lot of highs and lows, but the highs outweigh the lows and I enjoyed every minute of it.”
When asked for career highlights, by Walsh on RTE, Power said, "There's been so many highlights, it's hard to pick one out. Even that day here on Sizing John when he won his third Gold Cup with Djakadam and Coneygree, it's as good a race as I ever rode in and I got a huge buzz out of that.
"I've had so many highs, I've had a wonderful career and hopefully the next two days go well."
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