RICHARDS NOT TO RIDE AGAIN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27426, 12 August 1954, Page 4

RICHARDS NOT TO RIDE AGAIN

Champion Jockey’s Decision (N.Z.P.A Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Aug. 10. Sir Gordon Richards, Britain’s champion jockey, today hung up his boots and saddle. He said: “I shall not ride again in public.” He made the announcement from his holiday home in Worthing, Sussex, where he is recuperating from This accident at Sandown Park racecourse on July 10, when the Queen’s filly, Abergeldie, rolled on him, dislocating a bone in his pelvis. Sir Gordon Richards said: “After 34 years as a jockey, every minute of which I have enjoyed, it is naturally with no little regret that I make this announcement. “I wish I could see the season out, for I shall miss the familiar racing scene and the thrills a jockey gets when a vast and enthusiastic racing public shares his triumphs. “My last accident has ended my riding career sooner than I had planned. I have made a good recovery and my doctors say I shall be walking about normally in two to three weeks’ tifne. "But I could not hope to be fit to ride in races until mid-October at the earliest. “There would be no point in striving to do that, because the principal' owners for whom I ride by that time will have retired their best horses for the year,” said Sir Gordon Richards.