Adrian Heskin calls time on his race-riding career

PA Sport Reporters
May 7, 2024 8:38 am

‘I’m very proud of my career and achieved far more than I could have imagined as a kid’.

Adrian Heskin has announced his retirement from race-riding at the age of 32.

The County Cork native became the youngest winning rider at the Cheltenham Festival after steering Michael Hourigan’s A New Story to victory in the 2010 Glenfarclas Chase as a 17-year-old. The following month he landed the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown aboard Church Island for the same trainer.

Heskin went on to become retained rider for prominent owner Barry Connell, for whom he broke his Grade One duck on Martello Tower in the 2015 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, before later moving to Britain to take up the same position with Max McNeill.

Together the pair enjoyed several big-race victories, most notably with The Worlds End, who enjoyed Grade One success in the 2017 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree and the 2019 Long Walk at Ascot.

The Worlds End and Adrian Heskin in action at Aintree (Niall Carson/PA)

But McNeill and Heskin parted company last year, prompting the rider to return to his homeland, and while he enjoyed a Grade Two victory for Willie Mullins aboard Hauturiere at Limerick over the Christmas period, that was only four winners for Heskin in Ireland last season and he has decided to call time on his career in the saddle.

In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “After 15 years of race riding I’ve decided to call an end to my career.

“I’m very proud of my career and achieved far more than I could have imagined as a kid. I rode for the best of trainers on both sides of the Irish Sea and some fantastic owners along the way. Of course, some amazing horses too.

“My love for horses is stronger than ever and I owe everything I have to them. Here’s to the future.”