Robbie Power, whose big-race victories include the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Irish Grand National, said on Thursday that he will retire from race-riding after partnering Teahupoo in the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle at Punchestown on Friday.
Power landed the Grand National on Silver Birch in 2007 and the Gold Cup aboard Jessica Harrington’s Sizing John a decade later. He has struggled with a series of injuries in recent seasons, however, including a fractured hip which kept him on the sidelines from October until late January during the 2021-22 campaign.
“It’s down to the injuries,” Power said after winning a handicap chase on Magic Daze at Punchestown on Thursday. “I’m 41 next month and I’m not getting any younger. I had injections in my hip but it didn’t really work. The whole family are coming tomorrow and I’ve got a couple of good rides left. My wife 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.
“There’s been several days I’ve woke up thinking this was it. If I’d won the Gold Cup [on Minella Indo, the runner-up] 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.”
The first of Power’s 31 Grade One wins before his final rides on Friday came in February 2005 on Carrigeen Victor, also trained by Harrington, while his most recent top-level success was on Colin Tizzard’s Fiddlerontheroof in the Tolworth Hurdle in January 2020.
He rode 15 Grade One winners for the Harrington stable, and 11 for Tizzard, including the Betfair Chase in 2019 on Lostintranslation.
Power came with a strong late run on Ashdale Bob in Thursday’s feature event, the Champion Stayers Hurdle, but it was not enough to overhaul Klassical Dream, the 11-10 favourite, who held on to win the race for the second year running by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
Raasel can roar back to winning ways
The decision to return Newmarket’s Guineas meeting to three days has not enjoyed the most competitive of starts, with just 42 runners declared for Friday’s card at Headquarters and only 22 in the four contests being shown live on ITV4.
That could see punters edging towards a competitive sprint handicap at Goodwood in search of a bet at a working person’s price, and Raasel (2.40), one of the more progressive five-furlong specialists last season, is worth an interest at around 5-1 to register his first win of 2022.
It took Mick Appleby three outings and a 201-day midsummer break to work his magic on Raasel after a switch to his yard at the start of 2021, but he then reeled off a five-timer – starting with a win over this track and trip – in the space of six weeks from mid-September.
He failed to extend his winning streak to six on his return to action at Musselburgh earlier this month but showed more than enough there to suggest his latest mark of 94 offers room for further progress this summer.
Goodwood 1.30: Al Mubhir won with plenty to spare on his debut at Newmarket last October, with three next-time winners among the beaten horses.
Newmarket 1.50: Another winner from a hot juvenile event makes his seasonal debut and Subastar looks big at around 4-1 to follow up his comfortable maiden win in September, a race in which the second, third and fourth all won next time up.
Newmarket 2.25: Gubbass improved to finish about two-and-a-half lengths behind Perfect Power in the Greenham and could well boost that form before the winner’s run in the 2,000 Guineas on Saturday.
Newmarket 3.00: A 5lb penalty may not be enough to stop Wizard D’Amour following up his win in a strong time at Catterick last week.
Wolverhampton: 1.00 Weloof, 1.40 Motasaafeq, 2.15 Gherkin, 2.50 City Escape, 3.25 Sweeping Statement, 4.00 Captain Kane, 4.35 Deep Sigh.
Newmarket: 1.15 New Hope Bullet, 1.50 Subastar, 2.25 Gubbass, 3.00 Wizard D’Amour (nb), 3.35 Yibir, 4.10 Voodoo Queen, 4.45 Dingle.
Goodwood: 1.30 Al Mubhir, 2.05 Rocket Rodney, 2.40 Raasel (nap), 3.15 Save A Forest, 3.50 Chipstead, 4.25 Wineglass Bay, 5.00 Diamond Cutter.
Cheltenham: 4.40 Envoye Special, 5.15 Famous Clermont, 5.50 Moratorium, 6.25 Salvatore, 7.00 Cashmoll, 7.35 Shantou Flyer, 8.10 Stratagem.
Newcastle: 5.05 Parikarma, 5.35 Sonnerie Power, 6.10 Harswell Duke, 6.45 Golden Voice, 7.20 King’s Knight, 7.55 Redzone, 8.30 Joshua R.
Goodwood 3.15: Save A Forest was disappointing in the Park Hill Stakes on her final start at three but her Listed win at Newmarket on her previous outing looks like strong form and she deserves a chance to regain the winning thread back at that 12-furlong trip.
Newmarket 3.35: The Group Two feature event on the card is likely to be a straightforward assignment for Yibir, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf winner, if he is anywhere near his best for his first run in Britain since August 2021.
