Cassidy Signs Off After 36 Years of Riding

Champion Australian jockey Jimmy Cassidy retired from racing after 36 years in the saddle at Flemington Thursday, according to Racenet.com.au. One of just four riders to win 104 Group 1 races in Australia, Cassidy’s final ride was a seventh-place finish aboard Distant Rock (Aus) (Medaglia d’Oro).

“It’s a sad day,” an emotional Cassidy told Racenet.com.au. “I’ve got a tear in my eye. It will be a little bit hard for the next week or two not walking in here [jockeys’ room] and seeing all the boys. I’ve had a great time. If all the jockeys could experience, probably not all that I’ve been through, but half of it, they’d have a hell of a life.”

During his tenure in the saddle Cassidy’s mounts won the elusive Grand Slam of Australian racing comprised of the GI Melbourne Cup (Kiwi {NZ} {1983} & Might And Power {NZ} {1997}), the G1 Cox Plate (Might And Power {NZ} {1998}), the G1 Caulfield Cup (Might And Power {NZ} {1997} & Diatribe {Aus} {2000}) and the G1 Golden Slipper (Ha Ha {Aus} {2001}).

Cassidy’s last chance at a Group 1 victory was quashed when his mount Dawnie Perfect (Aus) (Big Brown) was scratched out of the G1 Crown Oaks at Flemington Thursday.

Added Cassidy, “I came here in 1983 for the first time and won the Melbourne Cup on Kiwi and on Tuesday I had my last ride in a Melbourne Cup. It is a great race and has become the race that stops the world. To all my fellow riders I’d like to thank you all throughout Australia and the ones that are here at Flemington today for the competition, the challenges and the main thing that we all come back in one pieces after every race and go home to our families at night. To the racing public that have supported me throughout my career in Australia and New Zealand, I wish to thank you all very much.”