Racing
Ipswich Turf Club pays tribute to retired jockey Jim Byrne
The Ipswich Turf Club is celebrating the riding career of retired champion jockey Jim Byrne at the Easter Monday meeting today.
It is a fitting and deserved tribute for the popular jockey who had so much success at Ipswich where he won nine jockeys premierships, an apprentices title, three Ipswich Cups, three Eye Liner Stakes and two Gai Waterhouse Classics.
Byrne, who announced his retirement earlier this year, will be trackside with his family for today's meeting.
The ITC is acknowledging the jockey's contribution to racing at Ipswich with the running of the Happy Retirement Jim Byrne Benchmark 65 Handicap (1100m).
Byrne, 54, has struggled with injuries in recent years and made the reluctant decision to retire from riding.
"Injuries were catching up with me,'' Byrne said.
"When I hurt my knee in 2019, although I recovered my knee was never the same and I was getting a lot of pain from it.
"I started to lose the love of it because I've had so many injuries.''
During his celebrated riding career that stretched more than 30 years, Byrne rode nearly 3000 winners including seven at Group 1 level and more than 130 stakes winners.
His major wins included the 1999 Stradbroke Handicap on Adam, 2006 Ascot Vale (now Coolmore Stud) Stakes on Gold Edition, 2008 Queensland Derby on Riva San, 2017 Doomben 10,000 on Redzel and 2022 Kingsford-Smith Cup on Apache Chase.
"Adam was a very good horse and winning the Stradbroke on him was a special moment.
"Gold Edition was another brilliant horse and I would have to say Rothfire was one of the better ones.
"I also won a Doomben 10,000 on Redzel and he went on to win two Everests.''
Byrne won't be lost to racing although he has no plans to become a trainer.
"I have a saddlery business which I've been doing for 15 years,'' he said.
"I will continue to do that role as long as the jockeys want me.
"I guess you could say in footy terms, I've played the first half and looking forward to the second half now.''
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