RICHARD HILLS has announced he will retire from race-riding next month after a career spanning 33 years.
Hills, retained first jockey to owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum since 1997, is to hang up his saddle for the last time on Dubai World Cup night at Meydan on March 31st. The 49-year-old is in Dubai, riding for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum for the last 15 years.
Hills rode five British Classic winners for Sheikh Hamdan, taking the 1,000 Guineas on Harayir (1995), Lahan (2000) and Ghanaati (2009). He won the 2000 Guineas on Haafhd in 2004 – like Ghanaati trained by his father Barry – and the Oaks on the Michael Jarvis-trained Eswarah in 2005. In 1999, Hills won the Dubai World Cup on the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Almutawakel.
Hills had the first of more than 1,840 domestic winners on Border Dawn at Doncaster in October 1979. He landed his first Group One win on Ashal in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 1990.
His other major victories included four Group One races on the Marcus Tregoning-trained Nayef – the 2001 Champion Stakes, the 2002 Dubai Sheema Classic, the 2002 Juddmonte International and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in 2003. He also won the last-named race on Mtoto in 1987.
