LANGHOLM jockey Dale Irving announced his retirement last Friday after riding his final races at Hexham.
Dale, 26, who currently works for Maurice Barnes near Brampton, said he had been thinking about it for some time.
The former Langholm Cornet said: “I was just not too happy with myself for a while.
“I wasn’t riding with as much confidence as I used to so I decided to call it a day.
“I’m going to stay at Maurice’s yard as his assistant and take it from there. There are a few different courses I can do.
“I had already started my Level 3 in racehorse care and there is quite a lot of work to that. I’ll have more time to work on it now.
“Once I’ve completed that, I can do the trainer’s courses. There are quite a few of those around, including one-week courses at Newmarket.”
Dale recalled some of the best moments of his riding career.
He had some special times riding Aristo Du Plessis for James Ewart Racing at Langholm, including at the Scottish National meeting, while No Such Number gave him four wins in a row for Maurice.
In the five years from April 2016 up to this point in the 2020/21 season Dale has recorded a total of 41 winners.
Of these, 23 were over hurdles, 16 in chases and two in National Hunt flat races.
He had 338 rides over hurdles, coming second 31 times, third 34 times and fourth 39 times.
In chases he had 181 rides, coming second 13 times, third 27 times and fourth 27 times.
He won £107,000 when winning hurdles and his total earnings were £202,000.
His wins in chases made £71,000 and £145,000 in total earnings.
In National Hunt flat races his winning races earned £5,523 and the total earnings were £356,000.
Total winnings were £184,000 and total earnings £365,000.
Dale said he would like to thank everyone in the town for the support they had given him over the years.