Jump jockey Mattie Batchelor, one of the most popular figures of the weighing room, has announced his retirement.
Batchelor rode for nearly 30 years, enjoying Cheltenham Festival success on King Harald in 2005 and his biggest win on Carruthers in the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup.
But in recent seasons he has ridden mostly on the Channel Island of Jersey and it is nearly three years since he last rode a winner in Britain. He had just 17 rides in the whole of the 2021-22 campaign, and none this season, as he acknowledged in his social media post.