Horse racing: Mark Bradburne pulls plug on career as jockey

MARK Bradburne, the Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey who twice returned from a broken back, has decided to call time on his career in the saddle.

The 35-year-old ranks the victories in the Grand Annual on Palarshan and the National Hunt Chase with Relaxation as among the highlights of a long career, while his association with trainer Henry Daly led to rides on other smart horses such as Behrajan, Young Spartacus and Hand Inn Hand.

The son of Fife trainer Sue Bradburne, he now plans to focus on a new vocation as an electrician.

“After 19 years in the saddle I feel it is the right thing for me to stop riding and devote more time to my business,” Bradburne said. “I have loved my riding, both as an amateur and as a professional. I’ve had a great time. Amongst my tally of over 350 winners I have some special memories to treasure including two Cheltenham Festival winners, finishing third in the Grand National on Lord Atterbury trained by Martin Pipe, winning the Grade One Ascot Chase on Hand Inn Hand and most recently just being denied a winner in the Betfred Gold Cup on a great favourite Briery Fox.”

Bradburne lives in Lambourn with his wife Gee, the former top lady rider who is now Tony McCoy’s personal assistant.

“I have also had some serious injuries,” he added. “I have come back twice from a broken back but now it’s the right time to move on. Over the last three years during periods of injury, JETS (Jockeys Employment & Training Scheme) have helped me to retrain as an electrician and that business is growing. This is the right thing for me, for my wife and children and for our long-term future.”

He suffered a serious back injury at Kelso in April last year when his horse, Soldiers Tree which was trained by his mother, fell at the first. He was thrown head first into the turf and had to be airlifted by helicopter to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow after being treated initially in the Borders General Hospital near Melrose. Doctors diagnosed damage to the T9 vertebra, essentially meaning he had broken a bone in his back. He fought back to ride again, just as he had two years previously when he suffered two broken vertebrae in another fall.