Tom Scudamore: 'I'll miss everything - but other than getting in a time machine I can't do anything about it'
The top jockey reflects on his shock retirement with Lewis Porteous
It is less than a week since he shocked the racing world by announcing his immediate retirement from the saddle but Tom Scudamore appears to have slipped into 'normal' life all too easily.
The former jockey is one of the crowd in the Cribbs Causeway shopping complex near Bristol, and doesn't exactly look as if he's missing the Wednesday afternoon action from Ludlow as he sips a glass of white wine and tucks into roast chicken alongside wife Sara and toddler daughter Ava at Cafe Rouge.
Just six days earlier the thought of a spot of shopping and lunch with the family would have been an alien concept. Instead, the day had begun much like any other Thursday over the last 25 years, with a three-hour drive from his home near Taunton in Somerset to ride at Leicester.
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Published on inThe Big Read
Last updated
Copy- 'People love having horses with Willy rather than a miserable git like me'
- 'I'm not here to tell people how to train but if you hide something from me, I'm gone, I'm done - and you won't see me again'
- 'The lads often give out to me for saying what I say - but if I didn't say what I thought I wouldn't be being true to myself'
- 'I'm not retiring just yet. It'll come to me, I'm sure, but I hate idleness - I haven't had an idle moment in 60 years'
- 'The next target has to be number one spot. It's a massive dream and it's going to be hard, but you have to keep aiming high'
- 'People love having horses with Willy rather than a miserable git like me'
- 'I'm not here to tell people how to train but if you hide something from me, I'm gone, I'm done - and you won't see me again'
- 'The lads often give out to me for saying what I say - but if I didn't say what I thought I wouldn't be being true to myself'
- 'I'm not retiring just yet. It'll come to me, I'm sure, but I hate idleness - I haven't had an idle moment in 60 years'
- 'The next target has to be number one spot. It's a massive dream and it's going to be hard, but you have to keep aiming high'