Wayne Hutchinson has no retirement regrets even as he watches old pal Harambe win at Cheltenham

The best time to find out how a jockey is coping with retirement is to ask  him how the pipe and slippers are going a day after missing his first big winner.

Absolutely "no regrets" and "the right decision" is the attitude of Wayne Hutchinson three weeks after hanging up his boots, and a day after he might have ridden Harambe, 16-1 winner of Sunday’s Greatwood Hurdle, at Cheltenham.

Hutchinson, 38, the most successful jockey to emerge from Swindon (and perhaps the only one) since John Francome, was mentioned in despatches by winning jockey Tom Bellamy for his tactical input into the ride.

“I’m  enjoying it from the ground and got a good kick out of it,” reflected Hutchinson.

He is taking time out until Christmas and adjusting to a life out of the saddle before deciding on his future. While not the most flamboyant jockey of all time, he was sound, reliable, grounded, loyal and a thorough professional, attributes which will surely make him a valuable asset to his next employer whoever that is.

The son of a postman, Hutchinson, 38, had no background in horses although his mother rode for pleasure and his Dad watched it on the box and took him to Newbury occasionally. Until he was dropped from Swindon Schoolboys aged 14 he saw his future in football but he kept a pony at livery in Foxhill, just outside the town, and one Saturday walked down the road to the neighbouring yard of trainer Mark Usher to ask if he could ride the hack out at weekends.

Eventually he was apprenticed to Usher, got heavy, had a few rides over hurdles and moved half a mile down the lane to Stan Mellor in his final year as a trainer. When Mellor retired he went to Jeff King, another great ex-jump-jockey-turned-trainer, for his final year and then, having finished him off too, he knocked on Alan King’s gate.

“I was 21 and going to give it until I was 25 to see if I was any good when I arrived at Alan’s,” he recalled. “If not I’d have drawn stumps.”

He was soon riding as number two to Choc Thornton and was promoted to the top job when Thornton retired but rose to the challenge of filling those big boots. Among his 806 winners were a Welsh National on Halcon Genelardais, a  Scottish National on Godsmejudge, a Hennessy on Smad Place and Talkischeap in the Bet365 Gold Cup last spring.

He rode two Grade Ones on Balder Success and two Festival winners.  “He gave Smad Place a ballsy ride in the Hennessy,” said King. “We’d  decided to be handy but I didn’t expect him to be so aggressive. At half way I was spitting and he’s always said if he hadn’t won he thinks I’d have sacked him on the spot.”

It may not be too long before the name Hutchinson is jocked up in the newspapers again. His son, Callum, enrolled on the British Racing School’s  apprentice course at Newmarket yesterday and he will return to Andrew Balding, the Eton of apprentice academies, with his ‘L’ plates in due  course.

Some pedigree in the ponies

Ed Vaughan, the 12-year-old son of South Wales trainer Tim, won the Charles Owen 148 Pony Race Final at Cheltenham on Sunday but not before being given  a fright by Freddie Curtis, grandson of the late Gold Cup winning jockey Bill Rees, on the front-running Mr Marshall.

The 128 Final was won by Harry Davies whose mother, Angie Shea, is assistant trainer to Hugo Palmer in Newmarket where the would-be jockey already rides out.

“All the other runners from the yard ran dismally but at least we had one winner,” said Palmer, who predicts a bright future for Davies.  “Harry’s so light horses all go well for him – he gets a bit despondent when I tell him we need to stick a stone of lead under his saddle to give Michael Hills any sort of chance.”