Will Biddick, Britain’s most successful point-to-point rider, announced his retirement from the saddle during the Thurlow point-to-point meeting at Horseheath (31 December), bringing an end to a remarkable career spanning almost 23 years.
Cornishman Will rode a total of 705 winners, including a British record 623 point-to-point victories. He was crowned men’s national champion on eight occasions, a record he shares with David Turner, and set the benchmark for wins in a single season when riding 68 winners in 2014/15.
Renowned for his style and consistency, Will enjoyed long-standing associations with the Barber family and achieved major success in hunters’ chases, notably winning the Punchestown Champion Hunters’ Chase twice and the Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree in 2023. He also recorded a Cheltenham Festival success as a conditional jockey in 2009.
Largely injury-free throughout his career, Will now focuses on training and producing young horses from his base near Yeovil, combining point-to-point training with breaking and pre-training operations.
Will Biddick retires: “Other things have taken over”
Will said: “It was completely my decision. I wasn’t forced to stop – I’m not injured, not crocked, not anything like that. It’s just a natural progression. When I was in my riding heyday, I didn’t have the business, I didn’t have a family – now there are other things in my life that have taken over.
“Point-to-point riding isn’t something you do at 50%; it’s a full-time mental and physical commitment, and as soon as you start questioning that, you’ve no business being out there. I always said to myself that when that moment came, I’d walk away – and I did, while I’m still fit and healthy and on my own terms.
“I’ll always miss certain rides or races, but not enough to want to do it all year round. I’ve had huge satisfaction in recent years training winners ridden by other people, and that still gets the heart going just as much.
“I’m not leaving the sport – I’ve still got the yard, the pointers and the pre-breakers – it’s just a different chapter. I’ve had 23 brilliant years, some absolute glory days, and I’ve come out of it in one piece. It felt like the right time to step aside and move on.”
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