26 April 2011 Jones calls it a day
by Carolyn Tanner
Dai Jones, one of the most successful and popular riders in the sport, has hung up his boots.
"I broke my shoulder in 2000 and I've had problems on and off since then, more so in the last three or four years," he explained. "I was spending a fortune going to the physio every week, and I've just been kidding myself for a few months that it would come right. My body's telling me it's time to stop, although if I still had Cannon Bridge to ride the pain would have been worth it."
His first ride was in 1979 at Erw Lon on Happy Dave, who fell and lay winded for about a minute. "I remounted to finish third," Dai recalled. "The judge probably had a glass of whiskey while he was waiting."
His initial success, at the age of 21, came on the same track in 1983 on China Wedding, since when he has ridden over 200 more between the flags, while his numerous triumphs under Rules include victory in the 1997 Horse & Hound Cup on Celtic Abbey, whom he rates as the best he's ridden. He was Welsh champion on five occasions, and won the West Wales title a dozen times. His final success came last season at Laleston on Rash Oak.
As well as Celtic Abbey and Cannon Bridge, he has fond memories also of Ozzie Jones, owned by his father-in-law Keith Pearce (who sadly is in hospital after suffering a heart attack on Saturday) and successful in the 2002 John & Nigel Thorne Memorial Hunters' Chase at Stratford, and he enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the prolific winning mare Daisy Miller, whose owner Dillwyn Thomas has always been a great supporter.
Dai maintains that young riders learn from more experienced jockeys, and he cites the 1983 men's national champion John Llewellyn, the winning-most Welsh rider of all time, as someone who helped him considerably.
He considers himself fortunate to have ended his career relatively unscathed, and his best memories, he stressed, will be of the great craic he enjoyed while riding alongside such as Philip Mathias, Paul Hamer and Tim Jones. "I know Richard Burton was worried I'd be making a comeback," he added, "so he can rest easy now."
Dai will certainly not be turning his back on the sport which he says has given him so much. Apart from his involvement with Connolly's Red Mills, the generous sponsors of the Intermediate series, he will be supporting his daughter Jess next season. Jess, who had a handful of rides in 2008 and 2009, is currently working for Nigel Twiston-Davies and is intending to concentrate more on race-riding in 2012. Dai's son Ben, 11, is competing in pony races, although eight-year-old Hannah, he thinks, may turn her attention to other branches of equestrianism such as show-jumping or dressage.
"Emma [his wife] has had to put up with a lot," he admitted. "She's followed me round the country with the kids, even when they were tiny. I might spoil her now and make her a cup of tea in the mornings!"
One of the many who will regret Dai's retirement is commentator Eddie Williams, who pointed out "I've got nobody to take the piss out of now," while one of the jockey's contributions to the sport can be best summed up by a fellow rider, who told him "The changing area's bloody quiet and boring without you!"
