Fitz tight-lipped on retirement
Mick Fitzgerald is refusing to confirm suggestions he will go back on his decision to retire after the Grand National in April.
Currently riding at the top of his game, as a recent four-timer at Fakenham illustrated, Fitzgerald has been inundated with requests to rethink his decision.
But the Cork-born jockey, who rode his first winner at Ludlow in 1988, is determined to go out on his own terms.
“If you look at somebody like Alan Shearer, who, at the top of his game, said he wanted to retire, I very much want it to be that way,” said Fitzgerald.
“It’s very flattering that people say I am riding as well as I have ever done, which is the way I have always wanted it.
“I don’t want people saying ’look at him, he used to ride good horses, he used to be a good jockey, now he’s on the decline and I don’t know why Nicky Henderson is still using him’.
“I always say never say never, but I want to go out with everything intact and I want to go out at the top of my game.
“It’s kind of people to say that I should continue, but I think I’ve got to have a sit down with Nicky and my family and decide what I want to do,” he told At The Races.
“The one thing you can’t do in this game is turn your back on it for six months and say I think I was a bit premature and then come back.
“You can’t do that because you need to be in the cut and thrust all the time because you fall that split-second behind, which is the difference between winning and losing races, and that’s what I don’t want.”
