Three-time Champion Jockey Davy Russell has confirmed his retirement for a second time and will exit the sport following Saturday’s racing at the Aintree Grand National festival.
Russell, 43, announced his initial retirement in December 2022 after winning the Billy Harney Memorial Irish EBF Mares Novice Hurdle on Liberty Dance at Thurles Racecourse.
However, he announced a month later that he would come out of retirement to help trainer Gordon Elliott and his horse owners after Jack Kennedy suffered a broken leg.
Russell felt that it was unfair to throw Elliott’s stable jockeys Jordan Gainford and Sam Ewing into the deep end due to their young age and inexperience in National Hunt racing.
🗣 "My wife stressed me that I needed to get back and not finish on the note I finished on."@_Davy_Russel_ is set to bow out from the saddle today. A final G1 winner for the jockey courtesy of Irish Point
Lovely words for wife Edelle & @gelliott_racing too 👏 pic.twitter.com/9olYCSAhFv
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 15, 2023
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A three-time Irish jump racing Champion Jockey in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2017/18, Russell won back-to-back Grand Nationals in 2018 and 2019 at Aintree on Michael O’Leary’s Tiger Roll.
He became the first jockey since Brian Fletcher on Red Rum in 1974 to win back-to-back Grand Nationals on the same horse. Russell’s relationship with O’Leary recently turned sour after the Ryanair CEO criticised his decision to come out of retirement.
Russell’s final ride as a jockey will come in the Grand National on Saturday evening at 5:15pm on the Gordon Elliott-trained Galvin, who earned a second place finish in the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham last month.
Gordon Elliott is hunting a fourth win in the Grand National and Galvin has a decent chance with odds of 20/1. Other runners for the Meath-based trainer include Delta Work (10/1), Coko Beach (28/1), Fury Road (40/1) and Dunboyne (66/1).
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