Jump jockey Tom Scudamore announced his retirement from racing on Friday after an incredible 25-year career. The announcement comes after being unseated at Leicester Racecourse on Thursday.
Son of eight-time Champion Jockey Peter Scudamore, Tom began racing as an amateur jockey in 1998, becoming British Amateur Champion in 2001 and riding in the Grand National for the first time that year.
Scudamore, 40, tallied an impressive 1,511 winners during his career which places him in the top 10 of the most successful Jump jockeys of all time in Great Britain and Ireland. His retirement comes exactly seven years after he reached 1,000 career winners on this day in 2016 at Musselburgh Racecourse, with Impulsive American for David Pipe, the trainer who contributed 47 percent of Scudamore's career winners.
The Somerset-based jockey's first professional Jumps victory was in October 2001 aboard Belle d'Anjou for trainer Martin Pipe at Chepstow Racecourse. Scudamore achieved 86 winners for Pipe before becoming stable jockey for Martin's son, David, in 2007.
Pipe and Scudamore's partnership proved to be a long-lasting success with Scudamore riding 712 winners for the trainer. The partnership boasted several Cheltenham Festival successes including two Ultima Handicap Chase victories (2016 and 2017) with Un Temps Pour Tout, a Ryanair Chase winner in Dynaste in 2014 as well as the Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase with Western Warhorse the same year.
Speaking to Great British Racing on Scudamore's retirement and their successful partnership, Pipe said: “Tom started riding for me when I was training Point-to-Point horses. He was a young kid and I wasn't much older, and he has ridden for me all of my career so far since 2006/7, so it's going to be strange without him but he will remain involved in the yard.
“He has been a true professional in and out of the saddle and has had a marvelous career. Tom's the ultimate professional. He's good on the horse and he's good off the horse, and with the jockeys in the yard and the owners, he's very educated.”
Scudamore had a total of ten Cheltenham Festival wins during his career including a win in the Grand Annual Chase Challenge Cup in 2015 with Next Sensation for his brother, trainer Michael.
Peter Scudamore, Tom's father, said of his son's retirement: “Firstly I'm very proud of the way Tom's conducted himself throughout his career. He's probably a better jockey than me, he's set a great example to everybody and I'm very proud of that.
“When he was kid, he always said he was going to be a jockey, he had the opportunities to do so, and he carried it out but with a lot of hard work and determination behind him.”
A well-respected jockey in the weighing room, Scudamore rode for 476 Jump trainers throughout his career, including the recently retired Colin Tizzard.
Tizzard provided Scudamore with one of his biggest winners in the form of Thistlecrack, with the pair combining to win the 2016 King George VI Chase at Kempton Racecourse, while they also won the Ryanair World Hurdle together at the Cheltenham Festival in the same year.
Reflecting on his career on the Nick Luck Daily podcast, Tom Scudamore said: “I'm very proud of what I've achieved, it was a great thrill to ride 150 winners (2014-15) and I was very lucky that was when David had a yard full of very good horses.”
“The last few years has been more about quality over quantity, I've been very fortunate to ride a couple of Coral Gold Cup winners at Newbury and a Scottish Grand National Winner and had a lot of big winners in the last few years.”
“From a personal point of view, although it never weighed on me being a Scudamore or anything like that, there was a pressure that you didn't want to be the one to drop the baton to let the side down to be the fool, so to ride a many winners as I have over a long career and big winners and Cheltenham Festival winners, now I can very proudly look at my father and grandfather in the eye and say I did my bit to carry it on and I didn't let anybody down.”
David Pipe (continued): “In the early days, Tom got better and better with the more experience that he got and I think it was great that he started off with Point-to-Point racing. People in racing knew he was following the path of his very successful father, and then when he arrived at Pond House (the Pipe's yard) it was after AP McCoy retired so, he had big shoes to fill.”
“Tom is his own individual man and jockey, and in the last few years he's probably been riding better than ever. His mindset has made him stand out as a jockey. He is very good on a big day; he never lets the atmosphere phase him and he's good in the lead up to Cheltenham and the big festivals. He has always been very meticulous, he would do his homework and preparation, and he always made sure he was ready for what he was going into.”
“Tom made great connections with horses, and he struck up a fantastic partnership Lough Derg. Our yard wasn't going through the greatest of times so their partnership has always been very special to us, and Lough Derg and Tom always seemed to get us out of trouble.”
Peter Scudamore (continued): “Nobody's born good at what they do, it takes a lot of practice. Some kids kick a football all day, Tom has ridden ponies and horses all his life and that's what made him good.”
“It means so much to me that he has ridden for the Pipe family, they made me and it is special that the partnership has continued with both families.”
“It was also an amazing moment when Tom won the Grand Annual on Next Sensation for his brother Michael. That was a magical for us all, Cheltenham is a really special place so for it to happen there was fantastic.”
Sam Twiston-Davies: “Tom is a legend of the weighing room and a very good friend to me. We have had many good times together and some very tight finishes between us. He was an absolute gentleman to ride with and a fantastic jockey, his career shows that.”
“I think when so many of us jockeys have looked up to for so many years, it just shows what a great guy he is. I wish him the best with everything he wants to do in the future because I'm nearly certain he'll be successful at it.”
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