Glittering Career
Jump jockey Tom Scudamore has today announced his retirement from racing 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% 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.
Successful Partnership
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 marvellous 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.”
A Proud Dad
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.” Quote continued below.
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.
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