Jump jockey Charlie Poste calls time on career as he looks to next challenge

Charlie Poste, a Welsh Grand National winner on Le Beau Bai in 2011, has called time on his career in the saddle, which has spanned nearly 20 years.

Poste's final ride came at Uttoxeter on Tuesday evening when he partnered Jacobite Rising in a novice handicap chase, although there was no fairytale ending as the gelding was pulled up.

Bitten by the bug at an early age, Poste began riding out at the Lancashire yard of Geraldine Rees - the first female rider to complete the Grand National - at the age of 14, leaving school weighing "about seven and a half stone and always wanting to be a jump jockey".

However, his frame was more suited to the Flat and a switch to Richard Fahey - where the young rider came through the ranks with subsequent champion jockey Paul Hanagan and Barry McHugh - followed.

Le Beau Bai clears the last in the Welsh National for Charlie PosteCredit: Getty Images

The jockey's first winner came on the Fahey-trained Pup's Pride in a claimer at Southwell in February 2002.

He rode a handful more before realising his dream of becoming a jump jockey, developing into a solid and reliable member of the weighing room who posted his most prolific campaigns with 24 winners in 2007-08 and 2010-11, while the season after was his best financially, chiefly because of Le Beau Bai's Welsh National triumph.

"I wanted to be a jump jockey all the way through, but as I got older and realised more about money I should've been a Flat jockey!" Poste joked to the Racing Post.

"Of course I've loved it. It probably hasn't been the career I hoped it would be. Like everyone, you want to be champion jockey and riding big winners every week, and then you have a reality check and realise how hard and competitive the job is, but compared to plenty I've had a good career and rode some big winners."

They also include Russe Blanc in Warwick's Classic Chase in 2016 and the Grimthorpe four years earlier on Ikorodu Road.

Russe Blanc and Charlie Poste winning Warwick's Classic ChaseCredit: Getty Images

"I'm not moaning or belittling things, just being honest," he added.

"The Welsh National was the highlight along with the Classic Chase and Grimthorpe, staying-chase wins on horses who probably lacked a gear."

The 35-year-old, who thanked Milton Harris, Robin Dickin, Matt Sheppard and Richard Lee for their support along with Rees - "the toughest person I worked for but fantastic" - and Fahey, will get married to girlfriend Francesca Nimmo in September and plans to devote more time to their pre-training business not far from Stratford - a burgeoning operation that has acted as a catalyst for his decision.

"For the last three or four years we've built up the business, breaking in and pre-training horses for a lot of local people; Olly Murphy, Jonjo O'Neill, Ian Williams, Ben Case and Michael Scudamore among others," Poste said.

"We also have point-to-pointers to sell and when we moved to the yard we're in we had eight to ten horses and now we have more than 50 a lot of the time. Therefore, the time I've had to ride out and keep busy has become less and less. Certainly the last season I've hardly been able to ride out because of the commitment at home.

"I don't want to be a bit-part player anymore. Last season I had 75 rides and would turn up in the weighing room feeling like a spare part; if you want to be a successful jockey you have to ride out six, if not seven, days a week for different people and play the game. I'd probably got to the stage where I'd gone beyond that."

Poste, whose younger brother Ben also rides over jumps, continued: "I will miss the riding incredibly. I went round Uttoxeter tonight in that novice handicap chase and thought it was the best thing in the world, but I'd made a decision - from a business point of view - that I no longer want to do the rest of it.

"I found in the last year I'd be riding out when I wanted to be at home, immersed in our horses and that side of it."

At peace with his decision, Poste, about to qualify as a jockey coach, is also open to media work having had experience with At The Races and the BBC's 5 live, but training is "not really on the radar".

"I feel very lucky I know exactly where my next step is," he said. "This has been coming for the last four years. Most jockeys retire and have to decide what to do for the rest of their lives, but I've retired today and am straight into what I'm doing tomorrow.

"I'm calling stumps because other things have become more lucrative. Much as I love race-riding for the pureness of it, it doesn't pay the bills the same way.

"That's the hard fact of it and the only way I could make it pay was to go back to like I was in my early 30s and riding out every day, doing all the hard yards."

Read exclusive previews from 6pm daily on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app