Record-breaking rider Derek OConnor announces retirement

 

The 44-year-old, a 12-time champion point-to-point rider, announced his retirement from the saddle on Sunday afternoon.

 

It means that Sam Curling supplied O’Connor with the final winner of his remarkable career when The Great Unknown landed the mares’ open at Lisronagh.

 

That success came more than 26 years after O’Connor first entered the winner’s enclosure aboard Rossy Orchestra at Killaloe in January 2000. The horse was trained by Co Clare brothers John and Pat Lynch.

 

During the intervening years, the Galway native achieved a collection of milestones which would once have seemed almost unthinkable within point-to-pointing, rewriting the record books and establishing standards which may never be matched.

 

Announcing his retirement, O’Connor released the following statement:

 

“After the most wonderful and successful career, I feel the time has come to hang up my boots. I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to have worked with some of the best people in horse racing: trainers, owners and, most importantly, the people behind the scenes.

 

“I am thankful for every day I got the opportunity to put a set of colours on and the enjoyment it brought to myself, my family, trainers, owners and racegoers alike.

 

“My association with the McManus family brought me to places unimaginable for most jockeys. I’ll be eternally grateful.

 

“To Paul Holden, Robert Tyner, Sam Curling, Pat Doyle, Paurick O’Connor, Wilson Dennison, Colin McKeever, Ian Ferguson and all their families, and countless, countless other trainers who have given me opportunities, a huge thank you for your constant support over my career.”

 

One of the most significant landmarks in O’Connor’s career came in February 2015, when he became the first rider to record 1,000 Irish point-to-point winners.

 

He reached the milestone aboard Death Duty, who powered to a 15-length victory for Pat Doyle and Gigginstown House Stud in a four-year-old maiden at Cragmore.

 

Further records quickly followed. O’Connor reached 1,100 winners in 2017 before becoming the first rider to pass the 1,200-winner mark just 11 months later.

 

In February 2023, Longhouse Legacy supplied him with his 1,300th success between the flags, whilst Holshot brought him to the 1,400- winner mark at Ballyknock in April of this year, as he continued to stretch his record into previously unchartered territory.

 

O’Connor was also involved in another notable piece of point-to-point history when partnering the John Duggan-owned and bred Longhouse Music to her 13th victory of the season at Kinsale.

 

That made her the first pointer to win 13 races during a single campaign, with O’Connor aboard for ten of those successes.

 

He forged particularly successful partnerships with several handlers throughout his career, including Pat Doyle, whose Suirview Stables supplied many of his most notable four-year-old maiden winners.

 

Among them was Shattered Love, whom O’Connor rode to victory at Lemonfield in 2015 before she subsequently became a Grade 1 winner at the Cheltenham Festival.

 

Dual Grade 1 winner Death Duty was another notable graduate of that partnership, having begun his career with O’Connor aboard at Cragmore.

 

However, no handler supplied him with more winners than Robert Tyner, whose support extended throughout O’Connor’s career.

 

Their many victories included Priests Leap’s success at Dromahane. The horse subsequently went on to win the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park in consecutive years for owner Thomas O’Leary.

 

O’Connor’s dominance of point-to-pointing can be compared with that of A.P. McCoy on the British racing scene.

 

McCoy rode more than 4,000 winners during a 22-year career, but the scale of O’Connor’s achievement is underlined by the fact that he reached 1,000 winners after little more than ten seasons, despite the Irish point-to-point calendar typically featuring only around 60 days of racing each season.

 

At the centre of that success was a riding style particularly well suited to the point-to-point fields.

 

O’Connor had an exceptional ability to settle a horse, something which proved invaluable when riding inexperienced youngsters in maiden races.

 

He was also adept at getting horses to jump efficiently during the early stages of a contest, allowing them to build confidence before asking them to be brave when the pressure increased late in a race.

 

Those qualities helped him maintain a strike rate of more than 25% from his first ride in 2000 and made him one of the most sought-after riders for young horses.

 

His achievements were not confined to the point-to-point fields, as O’Connor also enjoyed considerable success under rules.

 

One of his most memorable victories came aboard Edwulf in the 2018 Grade 1 Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown for Joseph O’Brien.

 

That triumph completed a remarkable recovery for the horse, who had collapsed during the closing stages of the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham just 11 months earlier.

 

O’Connor’s performance aboard Edwulf earned him the inaugural Ride of the Year prize at the Horse Racing Ireland Awards.

 

He also rode six winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

 

Two arrived in 2011, when he won the National Hunt Chase aboard Chicago Grey and the Foxhunter Chase on Zemsky.

 

He claimed the National Hunt Chase for a second time aboard Jonjo O’Neill’s Minella Rocco in 2016, before partnering the Ted Walsh-trained Any Second Now to victory in the 2019 Kim Muir Handicap Chase.

 

O’Connor then added two further Festival winners in 2024. Corbetts Cross landed the Maureen Mullins National Hunt Chase for Emmet Mullins, while Inothewayurthinkin supplied his sixth success when winning the Kim Muir for Gavin Cromwell.

 

Few riders have provided point-to-point followers with as many memorable moments, and O’Connor retires with a record which has transformed what was considered impossible within the sport.

 

His name dominates the record books, but his influence can also be found in the countless young horses whose careers he helped to launch and the riders who sought to learn from him. That will ensure his legacy extends far beyond his final tally of 1,418 winners.

For more on Derek's retirement, we take a look back at his career in numbers, relive his era-defining rivalry with Jamie Codd, and look at what is next for the sport's most successful rider as he continues his association with the sport as a trainer, jockey coach and sales agent.