Jamie Moore retires from the saddle on medical advice

Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey Jamie Moore has announced his retirement from the saddle on medical advice following a fall last year.

Moore is the son of trainer Gary and the brother of Josh, Ryan and Hayley – all of whom are well-known faces in the racing industry.

After starting out in 2001, Moore was the champion conditional rider at the end of the 2003-04 season when based in Somerset with Martin Pipe, for whom he rode his first significant winners in graded events.

Naturally, much of his riding was on behalf of his father and it was the popular chestnut Sire De Grugy who became the horse of a lifetime for both when winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 2014 – one of 17 victories, with Moore in the saddle each time.

Moore rode 968 winners across his career and took the 2014 Scottish Grand National on Al Co for trainer Peter Bowen in the same season that Sire De Grugy was on the Grade One-winning streak that saw him named British Jumps Horse of the Year.

A heavy fall at Lingfield in late November last year left the rider with a fractured vertebra as well as broken ribs and a broken nose, with doctors advising him not return to the saddle as a result of the injuries he sustained.

In a statement issued via the Professional Jockeys Association, he said: "It is with huge regret that, following my last fall in November 2023, I will not be returning to race riding.

"After being checked by top neurologists and spinal specialists, and taking advice from Dr Jerry Hill and the doctors who've seen me the most in my career – Dr Rizwan Ghani and Dr Lucy Free – I have been medically advised not to race ride again.

"I would like to thank everyone who has stuck by me and supported me throughout my 22-year career.