Derby-winning jockey Adam Kirby finally admits he has retired two years after last mount

Derby-winning jockey Adam Kirby has finally admitted he has retired from the saddle - two years after his last ride.

The 36-year-old was one of the most talented riders in the weighing room but fought a continuous battle with weight which became acute when saunas were banned from racecourses. His peak achievement was victory in the 2021 Derby when he steered Godolphin third string Adayar to success at Epsom, but he rode a host of other big race wins including at in races like the Prince of Wales’s, King’s Stand and Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

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Together with trainer Clive Cox he also won the July Cup twice on the sprinters Lethal Force and Harry Angel. Kirby’s last ride was in August 2023, a season in which he had partnered just five winners.

In an interview with RacingTV, he said: “One thing come to another and it wasn’t going too good the last year and I was struggling with a lot of things and just decided to pull the pin and go out quietly.

“I didn’’t have a good horse for the year ahead. I couldn’t do the weight on a lot of horses. I was struggling physically to do the weight the best of times but then when you haven’t got live chances and not riding winners, it mentally got to me.”

Despite not riding, Kirby had left open the chance he could return to the saddle, but admitted the decision was now final.

“It’s something I wouldn’t say I was good at, but I was far from the worst jockey. It just wasn’t meant to be anymore," he said.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, saunas were out of bounds to jockeys when racing resumed and, subsequently removed from racecourses, although the BHA allowed the minimum weight for jockeys to rise in 2022.

Kirby added: “I appreciated at the time it was Covid and a pretty bad thing was happening in the . Even to get racing back on track with no sauna as quick as they did.

“Obviously we got a weight allowance which was a massive help to me but then the weight allowance stopped and then the saunas stopped and I started to find if far too hard.”

He said “there would be a good chance” he would still be riding if saunas were still in use.

“I knew nothing was going to change," he went on. "I knew I would have to go into proper starvation mode to keep the show on the road. If I’d had a good horse the year I gave up I would probably have kept going for longer.”

Asked if he had made peace with his decision, he replied: “No.”