Has retired. All the best to Dickie though. A true pro, irrepressibly upbeat, honest as the day is long. If he was a horse the word 'genuine' would appear next to his name all over the formbook.
Richard always came across as a nice man, and unlike a fair few jockey's around, you knew he was always trying to give the horse the best chance to finish in the best possible position that it could. Had the privilege of seeing him race live a few times, one that sticks in my mind is his ride on a horse called Snap Tie that came over and won a big handicap hurdle at Punchestown a good few year back now, I was nattering on about it to the lads I travelled up with about the horse and to back it, Hobb's and Johnson aren't coming over for nothing, the usual narrative, got to the track and we got wind of a "big tip", so we went with that instead, and all looked on open mouthed, as sure as day turns into night, Snap Tie was given a peach to hold on and win. Lesson learned. Glad he got his few jockey titles in the end and I'm sure he will go on being a very good ambassador in horse racing, whatever role he choses to do next.
