Proud Mattie Batchelor officially bows out of the weighing room
Mattie Batchelor says he will miss the camaraderie in the weighing room as he retires from race riding “immensely proud” of all he has achieved in the saddle.
Known as one of the biggest characters amongst the riding fraternity, he is best remembered on track for partnering Carruthers to an emotional victory in the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup, while he also picked up a pair of Grade Two wins over hurdles on future Gold Cup winner Coneygree.
He also registered a Cheltenham Festival winner when partnering King Harold to success in the in the 2005 Jewson Novices’ Handicap Chase.
With rides in sparse supply on home shores in recent years, Batchelor has mostly been plying his trade in Jersey, where he made his last mount aboard Neil Mulholland’s Hidden Depths a winning one at Les Landes on August 29.
Although hoping to bow out at Plumpton – the course he enjoyed the most success at as a rider – circumstances got the better of the 46-year-old, whose licence expired in December and prompted the decision to hang up his boots.
He said: “My last ride in Jersey was a winner fortunately. I was hoping to ride one last time round Plumpton as I had a lot of success there and many years ago they let me put some of my mum’s ashes on the winning line, so it just seemed fitting to go out there.
“But my licence ran out at the beginning of December and it would have meant renewing that and I’ve got a dodgy hip, so it just seemed the right thing to do (retire).
“The last five years have been mainly barren over here, but I mainly kept hold of my licence so I could ride in Jersey and then it got a bit slow over there as well.
“I rode over there for 15 consecutive years and I never went a season without having a winner, but the last few seasons I was only just clinging on and nicking one – so that’s when you know it’s time to wave the white flag.”
Having not sat on a horse until his teenage years, Batchelor believes he is proof that the weighing room is full of capable riders if given an opportunity.
He continued: “I’m immensely proud of what I’ve done because I didn’t sit on a horse until I was 15 and to forge a career out of it and to have a Cheltenham Festival winner and a Hennessy Gold Cup winner is great.
“I can even say I rode a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, even though I didn’t ride him in the Gold Cup. He gave me a couple of good days when winning the Grade Twos and it was nice to sit on something like that.
“They were very good times. I was very fortunate to have a couple of good horses throughout my career, like King Harold, Carruthers and Quakers Field for Gary Moore.
“You see week in week out, the top boys, they have winners here, there and everywhere. But for someone like me to be lucky enough to get a couple of winners on telly and be half known a bit was very rewarding.
“I think I was a prime example that, and this goes for a few of the lads now who aren’t really in the limelight, if you are given the right horses you can do the job. You just need a little bit of luck and I got really lucky.”
Despite the Cheltenham Festival and Hennessey victories on his CV, Batchelor has highlighted the time he finished third in the 2009 Topham aboard Mark Bradstock’s Cossack Dancer as his most cherished memory from his time in the saddle.
He added: “The cherry on the cake for me would have been a ride in the Grand National, which I got close to a few times but just never happened. But one of my fondest memories is when I did get a ride in the Topham and I got round and finished third. I still say now that was the biggest buzz of my career.
“All I ever wanted was a picture of me going over the National fences in my lounge, whether that was falling off or going over a fence, and that was one of my proudest moments just to get round there.
“It was nice for someone like myself who didn’t start riding till late to go to these big meetings. Even riding in the Gold Cup when I finished fourth (aboard Carruthers in 2010), I got a massive buzz out of that coming back into the winner’s enclosure into the fourth position.”
Now retirement beckons, but like all who depart the riding scene, Batchelor says he will miss the atmosphere and friendships forged in the weighing room most as he officially makes the leap to ex-jockey.
“Everyone says it but going into that changing room and the camaraderie, you can’t beat it,” he said.
“That whole atmosphere in there and the camaraderie you’ll never get that back because it’s a great place to be.”
