Joe Fanning insists he has no plans to retire and intends to 'keep kicking' towards 3,000 winner milestone

A day on from becoming the seventh winningmost jockey in British Flat racing history Joe Fanning joked he had no plans to follow fellow 50-something Frankie Dettori into retirement, admitting the push to join the 3,000 club could keep him around for a while yet.

There are just three members of the weighing room who have been alive longer than Fanning – racing's most famous soon-to-be-retiree Dettori is several months younger – but asked if there was any chance of his own farewell tour taking him to Hungary and Sweden next year, he laughed and said: "No, I wouldn't be doing that, I'll just keep trucking along. I don't think anyone will have heard of me over there!"

A farewell tour could not be more out of character for one of the weighing room's most understated riders and asked what the future holds, he added in typically deadpan fashion: "We'll just keep kicking on, we're not far off the all-weather season. I'll have a break over Christmas and into the beginning of January and then we'll kick on again for another season. It all comes around."

Fanning has no plans to retire any time soon, admitting trying to ride the 189 more winners he needs to reach 3,000 is somewhat tempting, but a bad injury last year means he is not taking anything for granted. Asked if it was a personal target, he said: "A little bit yeah, but you never know in this game. You just have to keep trucking along. We'll see how it goes, it's still a good few winners off so I'll take it day to day."

Joe Fanning: now the seventh winningmost jockey in BritainCredit: John Grossick

A first success in Saturday's Ayr Gold Cup, courtesy of a fast-finishing Significantly, took Fanning level with Joe Mercer in the all-time list and less than two hours later he nudged his 2,811th British Flat winner to stand seventh on his own thanks to victory aboard the Charlie Johnston-trained Capital Theory. Only Sir Gordon Richards, Pat Eddery, Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Frankie Dettori and Doug Smith sit above him, with a combined 61 jockeys' titles. Dettori's impending retirement will result in Fanning inheriting the title of most winners among active riders.

Speaking of his milestone achievement before taking two rides at Hamilton on his 53rd birthday, Fanning said: "I saw it in the Racing Post this morning, yeah. It's nice to do it. If someone had said to me starting out I'd ride that amount of winners I'd have been very happy."

As for his Ayr Gold Cup-winning partner, trained by Julie Camacho, on whom he was sixth in a Stewards' Cup and runner-up in the Portland, he added: "Niall [Hannity, Fanning's agent] got me on it at Goodwood and I've kept the ride. He's a nice horse and he'd have been unlucky had he got beat, so he got me out of trouble."

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