Charlie Poste, a familiar face on Britain’s point-to-point circuit, has quit the ranks of professional Jump jockeys.
Poste, who in September marries point-to-point trainer Francesca Nimmo (the couple are pictured above), rode in his final race at Uttoxeter yesterday evening. He will now immerse himself in the pre-training, breaking and point-to-point yard that he and Nimmo have established at the Hutsby family's farm in Warwickshire.
With a CV that included wins in the Welsh National – on Richard Lee's Le Beau Bai – and the Grimthorpe and Classic Chases, Poste told the Racing Post: "Of course I've loved it. It probably hasn't been the career I hoped it would be. Like everyone, you want to be champion jockey and riding big winners every week, and then you have a reality check and realise how hard and competitive the job is, but compared to plenty I've had a good career and rode some big winners."
Poste and Nimmo have created a yard in which unbroken stores, bought to race and be reoffered as four-year-old pointers, rub shoulders with older horses whose purpose is invariably to provide experience and sport for owner/riders. Last season they included 16-year-old novice Luke Scott, and owner/riders Harry Arkwright, Gordon Hopkinson and Amy Cox. In the 2017/18 season they helped Alice Stevens win the Fuller's national novice women's title.
This year Poste and Nimmo have enjoyed a breakthrough with horses they bought to sell, gaining six-figure sums for the first time. Garry Clermont (£150,000) and Switch Hitter (£120,000) were both sold at Cheltenham after winning at Bangor-on-Dee and Maisemore Park respectively.
Sad passing of former rider Lucy Horner
Former amateur champion and point-to-point rider Lucy Horner has died at the age of 42.
Horner rode 28 winners under Rules in the 2008/09 season when taking the Amateur Jockeys' Association's title, and two years later she was runner-up to Gina Andrews in the same championship.
She won point-to-points and hunters' chases, and was a familiar figure in military races at Sandown Park.
More recently she had been managing Worsall Grange Stud in Yorkshire. The cause of death has not been announced.