Davy Russell confirms retirement after Aintree Grand National meeting

Russell initially announced his retirement from the saddle after riding Liberty Dance to victory at Thurles on December 18, but he was lured back into the weighing room after Gordon Elliott’s stable jockey Jack Kennedy broke his leg in January.

While emphasising it would be a short-lived return to help his long-time ally Elliott, Russell has ridden at three of the jewels of the National Hunt season, striking Grade One gold aboard the ill-fated Mighty Potter at the Dublin Racing Festival in February.

He endured a luckless Cheltenham Festival, eventually standing himself down ahead of riding Conflated in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and he did not get the leg-up again in public until Thursday at Aintree.

With Grade One verdicts aboard Gerri Colombe in Friday’s Mildmay Novices’ Chase and Irish Point in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle on Saturday, Russell will once again hang up his boots – this time for good – following a much more fitting finale to his illustrious career.

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