Steve Drowne has final rides after 27-year career

Steve Drowne brings down the curtain on 27 years in the saddle at Lingfield on Sunday when two rides for Ron Hodges will bring him full circle.

The six-time Group 1 winner, who is 45, explained: "Although I was apprenticed to Chuck Spares initially and then Richard Holder, it wasn't until I went to Ron Hodges that I really got going so it's great to be bowing out with him."

Drowne partners Dreams Of Glory (2.50) and Met By Moonlight (3.20) for Hodges in the last two Flat races of 2018 and said: "They both had a run a couple of weeks ago to put them spot on and, although I wouldn't say they've been laid out for today, I would hope they would both run well.

"They are both capable enough and, although it doesn't often happen, it would be nice if it did."

Reflecting on a career that has yielded more than 1,400 winners worldwide, including at least one on every course in the UK and more than 100 in a year three times, he said: "I've had a good old innings, but we all know that at some time it has to come to an end and that time has come.

"It would have been nice to have won the Derby and a few more big races, but apart from that I've no regrets at all."

Drowne's Group 1 triumphs include four in Europe's top sprints, with wins in the Prix de l'Abbaye on Patavellian and Avonbridge for Roger Charlton complemented by a July Cup for Hughie Morrison on Sakhee's Secret and more recently a Nunthorpe for Robert Cowell on Jwala.

However, rides of that calibre have been harder to come by since he missed a year on medical grounds in 2012.

He has ridden 20 winners in 2017, the most recent of them Pearl Acclaim, another sprinter, for David Griffiths at Southwell earlier this month.

Lingfield card and form

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