Cheltenham Festival Gold Cup Jockey Retires

Jim Culloty, the Irish jockey who was a three time winning Cheltenham Festival Gold Cup jockey who partnered Best Mate to three successive Cheltenham Gold Cup triumphs, has decided to call it a day from riding at the tender age of his early thirties. The quest is now on to find a replacement for Cheltenham Festival Favourite Best Mate but this will not have a major impact on the Cheltenham Festival betting.

Cheltenham Festival BettingThe Irishman said that health concerns were the reason for his decision to finish riding which also saw him land the 2002 Martell Grand National on Bindaree."I have been thinking about it for some time, basically for health reasons, whenever I have had a fall lately I have been left feeling dazed, which I didn't in the old days. As much as I love riding, I have to put my health before my career."Jim can be very thankful for his association with Jim Lewis and Henrietta Knight who gave him the opportunity to ride some quality horses including of course Best Mate, on whom he won a total of 12 races, including their three triumphs in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.Henrietta Knight was taken by surprise of the news of Culloty's retirement she said: "I knew he was going to ride freelance, but that at the same time he would still ride a lot of our horses, including Best Mate. "It was quite a surprise because he rode a beautiful race on Impek at Market Rasen (last Saturday) which turned out to be his last. "Any jockey who has had a number of falls and is as intelligent as Jim is likely to think about the future and, of course, he has a family to consider now."Jim Culloty's first winner came on Karicleigh Boy at Exeter in January 1994 and he had a big winner at the Galway festival when Perugino Diamond won the 2000 Galway Hurdle.

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