Robbie Power set to retire at Punchestown on Friday

Robbie Power has announced that he will retire from saddle after riding Teahupoo in the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival on Friday.

The leading rider announced the news following his victory aboard Magic Daze for the Henry de Bromhead team on day three of the Punchestown Festival.

Power said his decision to retire was due to “injury, basically” when speaking to Tom Stanley on Racing TV.

He said: "Injury, basically. I had my back operated on last summer and then fractured my hip when I came back in October. I’m 40 now and 41 next month - I’m not getting any younger. I had injections in my hip which didn’t really work, so the past couple of months have been hard work.

"My family are coming tomorrow, and I’ve got some good rides left, so I’m looking forward to it. My wife knew (that I was planning on retiring), my sister knew and my agent knew, but my father always told me if you tell one person you’ve told one person too many so I was trying to keep it as quiet as possible."

The Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winning rider has a host of big-race successes on his CV, which also includes the Irish Grand National and Irish Gold Cup, but has suffered badly with 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 in March.

Power, who thanked Jessica Harrington for being his biggest supporter throughout his career, has also enjoyed success with Gordon Elliott and had a short spell in the UK with Colin Tizzard.

“There’s been several days I’ve woke up thinking this was it," Power said.

"If I’d won the Gold Cup I’d have gone then, but Punchestown has been lucky for me so to go here, where I rode my first winner and now I’m guaranteed to ride my last one here, that will do.

“It’s a relief to announce it, as even this morning my agent was asking me if I was sure. I wanted to go out on something of a high but I have to do exercises every morning just to enable me to ride.

“I’ve been doing it 21 years and if someone said I’d ride the winners I have I’d have taken it. To ride for Jessica Harrington basically my whole career, I’ve been very lucky. She took me under her wing and nearly all my big winners were for her.

“She stood by me through all the highs and lows and has been an unbelievable mentor to me.”

Power won the Grand National on Elliott’s Silver Birch in 2007, the Gold Cup on Harrington’s Sizing John in 2017 and the pair doubled up to win the Irish National with Our Duke in the same season.

That was arguably Power’s best ever campaign as it also saw him link up with Tizzard to win three Grade Ones at the Grand National meeting with Pingshou, Fox Norton and Finian’s Oscar. Fox Norton and Sizing John would also win at Punchestown to cap an amazing two months.

Unfortunately for Power a downturn in Tizzard’s form coincided with his injury troubles and he moved back home. But Tizzard was responsible for his last Grade One winner, Fiddlerontheroof in the 2020 Tolworth Hurdle.