Champion hits finish line in customary cool style

Christy Roche's retirement on Tuesday caught most by surprise. Even J.P. McManus, the owner of the champion jockey's last ride, did not know that his close friend had chosen to bow out.

"It was only after the race that I found out, but I felt privileged that he chose one of mine for his last ride," says the Swiss-based businessman and renowned gambler.

That is typical of the loyalty that the short figure with the slight stammer and seemingly permanent upward tilt of the head inspires in his friends and colleagues.

Others were less charitable, however. Whereas McManus may have sighed with nostalgia, others were left gasping with relief. Their argument is simple. Roche (48) left it too late to retire, his performances this season not doing justice to what he was at his peak. It has not helped that in recent years Roche's position in racing's spotlight has been so prominent.

The position of stable jockey at Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stables is one of the most prestigious and pressurised in Europe. With the financial muscle of Coolmore Stud's John Magnier and the Monaco-based businessman, Michael Tabor, behind Ballydoyle, the potential for success is immense but so is the responsibility on the man on the back of the galloping investment.

Such responsibility attracts attention, and recently Roche, who has been plagued with weight problems, has found that attention uncomfortably intense. A controversial ride he gave to King Of Kings last year was subsequently vindicated by the colt winning this seasons's 2,000 Guineas.

Three months ago even more controversy arose when he appeared to give the Irish 2,000 Guineas favourite, Second Empire, an easy ride. Roche is confident he will be vindicated in that also, but the storm of media criticism has left its mark. He avoided certain sections of the media on Tuesday saying that "talking to them wouldn't feel right".

Friends say that while Roche is not vindictive, he does not have a poor memory either. In one of the most competitive of sports, both physical and mental toughness are essential but it was regrettable that the retirement of a man who without question is one of the pivotal figures in the last 25 years of Irish racing should have had a slightly bitter undercurrent. Regret table because in every sense Christy Roche is a success story.

Brought up on a small farm in Bansha in south Tipperary, Roche followed his three older brothers by becoming apprenticed to the great Curragh trainer, Paddy Prendergast. He had minimal experience with horses but wanted desperately to succeed, and Prendergast pounced on that. Roche has since described Prendergast as "like a father" to him, but he made the most of his chance.

The result is a career that has seen Roche land seven jockeys championships, win 12 Irish classics and become the only Irish-based rider to win the English, Irish and French Derbys. He has also ridden more winners in Ireland than any other jockey.

From Prendergast to Aidan O'Brien with Jim Bolger and Vincent and David O'Brien in between, Roche has ridden for the best trainers and ridden champions such as Assert and St Jovite. But even after all that he still embodied for many the mischievous attraction of the game in Ireland. Everybody knew that he would never get too big to feign disdain at the bookmakers' fractions.

However, a cheeky-chappie heart-on-the-sleeve caricature does less than justice to the man. For some years Roche, a non-drinker and non-smoker, has operated as a successful jumps trainer from his home on the Curragh with Conor O'Dwyer as his jockey. Yet the Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey admits to not fully knowing Roche.

"He can be hard to get close to. I've seen him in the jockeys' room through the years and I don't think there is one other jockey that he would be big pals with. He is quite deep, does his own thing and has ideas of his own on most things. He has worked hard for what he has and will still work hard for what he wants, but he thinks things out. He's not a jump-right-in kind of guy," he says.

Roche's passage to the top was not based on such frivolity, rather on determination and shrewdness. Other jockeys have learned to their cost how much use their rival could make of apparently insignificant information dropped in conversation about their mounts. Roche for his part was never over-concerned with how he looked in the saddle, just interested in keeping his saddle ahead of the others.

"He would be the first to confess that he was no great stylist, but in terms of fitness, strength and determination he was topdrawer," says racing commentator, Des Scahill. "From where he came his impact has been huge. When he was at the height of his powers, his clashes with Michael Kinane, for instance, thrilled Irish racing. With the benefit of hindsight, however, he should probably have called it a day after winning his seventh championship last year. That would have been nice."

In that sense, Tuesday's retirement was an anti-climax, but Roche won't care. He has more than fulfilled his riding talent down the years and can now concentrate on what he really wants to do, training.

"He's at a stage now where he gets more pleasure from training than riding. He doesn't need all the hassle of trying to control his weight. He has a bright future as a trainer because the one thing I have always appreciated from him down the years is the honesty of his comments to me as an owner," says J.P. McManus.

In other words, next time McManus will know the story beforehand. He may not be riding any more, but Roche will still be a man that bookmakers fear.