Cornelius Lysaght column

By Cornelius Lysaght
BBC racing correspondent

Legend has it that when Mick Fitzgerald turned up to ride the first of his 1280 UK winners, his boots were in such a state that he was handed a spare pair by one of the valets in the jockeys' changing room.

"These belong to [the then champion] Peter Scudamore," he was told.

"But be sure of one thing: you will never fill them."

That was at Ludlow races in December 1988. Twenty years on, Fitzgerald has hung up his own boots because of injury, and although he was never champion, he was unquestionably one of the brightest lights of his generation.

Horses like See More Business (1999 Cheltenham Gold Cup and King George VI Chase), Rough Quest (1996 Grand National) and Trabolgan (2005 Hennessy Gold Cup) have helped make him the fifth most successful jump jockey ever.

Only AP McCoy, Richard Dunwoody, Peter Scudamore and Richard Johnson have enjoyed more success under National Hunt rules.

But there has been much more to Fitzgerald's glittering career than just the winners.

A ready wit, his strong and endearing County Cork accent and the ability to talk, at length, to absolutely anyone have made Fitzgerald as popular a figure in a jump racing saddle as there has probably ever been.

Even as a young jockey, working for the trainer Jackie Retter between 1991 and 1993, it was clear that Fitzgerald had kissed the Blarney Stone passionately, and he regularly appeared on my slots on BBC Radio, famously pronouncing my first name "Carn-eel-ius", which has stuck as an office nickname.

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"Mick was a brilliant ambassador for National Hunt racing,"
dec-burk

The subsequent move to work with trainer Nicky Henderson at the historic Seven Barrows stables in Lambourn, Berkshire, meant more horses, more opportunities to talk and the chance to communicate with an even broader audience.

And they loved him, talking at six to the dozen about horses, racing and - tirelessly - about beating his great friend McCoy on the golf course.

So the news of retirement, although much anticipated since the serious neck and knee injuries he suffered in the Grand National (two years after breaking his neck), will cause real sadness further afield than just the close-knit racing industry.

But that friendly face and voice he will not be going far. It seems the plan is that now he will be doing even more of what he does best: talking about racing.

Best wishes for the future from all of us, Mick.

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