Features

Kinane bows out at the top

Author: John Harris
Date: 14/12/2009
Horse Racing betting

Veteran jockey Mick Kinane has bowed out of horse racing after a glittering 34-year career in the saddle.

He made the announcement after being named jockey of the year at the 43rd Derby Awards on December 7, eight years after his previous victory, holding off challenges from Ryan Moore, Richard Hills and Richard Hughes in the process.

The 50-year-old found himself in the limelight throughout 2009 due to the success of Sea The Stars, who won six Group One races on the Flat, including an unprecedented 2000 Guineas-Derby-Arc treble.

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In the impressive list, he clinched the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, the Juddmonte International Stakes during York's Ebor Festival and the Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes in a ground-breaking year under the fine riding of Kinane.

Ahead of the Breeders' Cup Classic in USA, Christopher Tsui, owner of the horse and John Oxx, the trainer, decided to retire the spectacular three-year-old colt to stud to ensure his legacy and, following this news, Kinane has decided to call time on his own illustrious career.

County Tipperary-born Kinane rode almost 1,500 winners around the world and we now take a look at some of his finest victories that made him a legend in horse racing circles.

Carroll House, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1989 - His first Arc success came 20 years before his last on Sea The Stars this year.

The horse was an outsider, despite winning the Irish Champion Stakes prior to the French Classic but, with the ground soft and in favour of the four-year-old, he duly obliged and helped etch Kinane's name into folklore.

Go And Go, Belmont Stakes, New York 1990 - Kinane found fame across the Atlantic by teaming up with trainer Dermot Weld and Go And Go.

It was a bold move even by their own standards but, after cantering to an eight-length victory, he shocked the onlooking Americans.

Vintage Crop, Melbourne Cup, 1993 - Once again Weld and Kinane doubled up to land a mesmeric Melbourne Cup victory.

What is even more amazing is that Weld remains the only European trainer to win 'the race that stops a nation'.

Under Kinane, he didn't just win the race, but secured victory in the famous two-mile Australian race by three lengths.

Galileo, Epsom Derby, 2001 - A supreme race horse under a sublime jockey, Galileo and Kinane combined beautifully to craft another success.

He featured prominently throughout and beat off the high-class field by over three lengths.

Kinane bows out at the top and, alongside Sea The Stars, his own legacy in the racing world will no doubt be preserved.

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