While Richard Quinn admits he is “getting bored in retirement and open to offers”, it gives him plenty of time to reflect on a his career that brought him three Classics and well in excess of 2,000 winners over a period of 28 years in the saddle.

Goodwood and tough stayer Persian Punch in particular, take pride of place for the 61-year-old, who was forced to retire for a final time in 2008 due to a persistent back injury.

Quinn is one of a handful of jockeys to ride more than 100 winners at Goodwood, a feat recognised by former clerk of the course Seamus Buckley, who had pictures of the riders who achieved that landmark adorning a wall at the West Sussex track.

“I loved Goodwood,” said Quinn. “It’s one of those very idiosyncratic tracks. They had these pictures on the wall – every one of them centurions.

“I was there, Pat Eddery was there, Frankie Dettori was there, Lester Piggott was there. Just to be on that wall, with all those people who have ridden 100 winners at Goodwood, I thought that was quite special.

“Seamus did that and he made it special. It was a really nice touch. He is a superstar.”

Quinn could be described in similar vein. One of the most stylish riders of his generation, he won the Oaks in 2000 on Love Divine and the St Leger twice, on Snurge (1990) and Millenary (2000).

He might also have ridden a Derby winner, having being the regular rider of Generous, but he was controversially replaced by Alan Munro before Epsom.

Yet the man who rode the first British all-weather winner, booting Niklas Angel to victory at Lingfield on October 30, 1989, says Persian Punch’s Goodwood Cup victory for master trainer David Elsworth in 2001 was one of his favourite highlights.

“It was a wet day and we came down the middle of the track,” recalled Quinn. “He stayed on and he was just a superstar horse.

“Owner Jeff Smith had Lochsong and then Persian Punch – two superstars who the public took to heart.”

Such was the gelding’s popularity that he even had his own fan club and website. No less than 13 of his 20 career wins were in Pattern company, and at the age of 10 he was just denied the Stayers’ Triple Crown of Goodwood Cup, Ascot Gold Cup and Doncaster Cup, by Mr Dinos at Ascot.

“He was a good horse,” said Quinn. “I was associated with him for such a long time, we travelled the country and to the Melbourne Cup twice, where he finished on the podium twice. It was a great experience and he gave me some great memories.

“Horses that are kept in training for six or seven years like him and Ibn Bey, you get really fond of them.

“When you are with these horses and you ride them year in, year out, you do get an attachment to them. You look after them, because you know there is going to be another day for them.

“For a time Persian Punch just lost a bit of confidence and David Elsworth, to his credit, was a superstar trainer and a genius. He dropped him out from Group company to conditions races, and that is when Martin Dwyer got on him and he got back up to Group level again.

“David did things by feel. He had an instinctive feel for the horse.”

Persian Punch won the Goodwood Cup again two years later and also won three Jockey Club Cups, the Doncaster Cup, three Henry II Stakes and two Lonsdale Cups, and was awarded the Cartier Award for top stayer in 2001 and 2003.

Quinn, who was champion apprentice in 1984 with 64 winners, spent 17 years with Paul Cole (1981-1998) before joining Henry Cecil in 2000 and was stable jockey at Warren Place for the next four years.

Persian Punch’s success was not Quinn’s first in the Goodwood Cup, having previously won the race with Tioman Island in 1994 for Cole.

“He just got beaten in the Northumberland Plate and he went to Goodwood and broke the track record on that occasion,” said Quinn.

“He was pretty much straightforward. He was a good ride and he didn’t do anything different to any other horse. You seemed to be rowing away, but he was very genuine and kept giving.”

The Scot was never one to resort to hyperbole or court attention and just quietly went about the demanding business of riding winners until a nagging back injury forced a shock retirement in 2006. Though he returned the following spring, he announced a permanent departure in 2008.

“I slipped two discs way back and that was the end of my career. When you are in pain, it affects your life completely,” he explained.

“When you are getting legged up and you twist round, it was so painful. But when I was on the horse, I was OK. It was just getting on it.”

Quinn was considered a reluctant self-promoter and an introvert, though he concedes a combination of factors led to this misinterpretation.

“I have a hearing impairment and a lot of the time I couldn’t hear what was going on,” he added.

“Also, back in the day when I was an apprentice, Lester Piggott was the main man. He didn’t talk to the press and we all thought that was the way to do it, it was normal.

“I was looking up to Lester, Joe Mercer and Greville Starkey and none of them were what you’d call media-friendly.”

Times have changed. Quinn’s style would be more suited to this era and he has always taken a keen interest in educating young riders.

“The good thing is, my style changed over the years and I used the whip as little as possible,” Quinn said. “I think that’s the way forward. It’s all about educating the young guys that you don’t have to use a whip.

“Once you have got a horse running as fast as it can, it doesn’t matter how many times you go to hit it. All it will do is come off a straight line and cause interference.”

In these interesting times, his words will echo through the weighing room and beyond, no doubt.

Artistic Star will head to the John Pearce Racing Gordon Stakes at Goodwood next as connections keep half an eye on the St Leger later in the season.

Ralph Beckett’s charge made an impressive debut at Nottingham at the back end of last year and doubled his tally to remain unbeaten when returning in a hot Sandown novice event in May.

That victory earned the son of Galileo a crack at the Derby where he ran with credit in seventh behind Auguste Rodin and he followed that Epsom outing with another respectable display at Royal Ascot when third to King Of Steel in the King Edward VII Stakes.

Having made three appearances in a fairly short space of time, connections made the decision to bypass the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket’s July meeting and Artistic Star will next be seen in Group Three action during the Qatar Goodwood Festival on August 3.

“He’s training very well. We were tempted to run at Newmarket, but we decided not to and we’re going to keep him for the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood,” said David Bowe, racing manager for owner Jeff Smith.

“We’re very happy with the way he’s training and as we’ve been quoted as saying before, he has a late birth date and he has had a few quick runs together, and I think he has benefitted a little bit from a longer time between races now.

“It will hopefully do him the world of good. He’s a very nice horse and well bred and we’re in it to race and have fun, but equally the horse deserves the chance to be the horse we think he could be so we will just give him a little bit of time.”

A strong showing on the Sussex Downs, a place where owner Jeff Smith has enjoyed some memorable days, could lead to a shot at the final Classic of the season at Doncaster on September 16, with Bowe indicating the team think Town Moor could be the ideal spot for Artistic Star.

He added: “That’s exactly what we think he should be (a Leger horse). He has that sort of profile and trip-wise it looks to be ideal, so who knows. We’re definitely keeping our eye on that option for sure.”

Highfield Princess will head for the King George Qatar Stakes at Goodwood after her two valiant efforts in defeat at Royal Ascot.

While the Goodwood race is only a Group Two, it is worth £170,000 to the winner and she will not have to carry a Group One penalty.

Quinn had considered the July Cup, but decided to keep her to five furlongs for the rest of the season, which means she will not be defending her Prix Maurice de Gheest title in Deauville which she won last season.

“We decided against the July Cup and she’s going to go to Goodwood,” said Quinn.

“That’s a slight change in plan, but we’re going down the sprinting five-furlong route, that’s our thinking.

“We thought, like last year, we’d give her a bit of a break now, a bit of a midsummer break and then head to Goodwood.

“She doesn’t have a Group One penalty which is handy.

“After Goodwood, we’ll then look at two of the races she won last year (Nunthorpe Stakes at York and Flying Five at the Curragh).”

Mick Appleby’s Big Evs is Goodwood-bound after a memorable victory at Royal Ascot.

The Blue Point colt had a second-placed debut run under his belt when he lined up at 20-1 in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot last Wednesday, but under Jason Hart he was a decisive winner when defeating Aidan O’Brien’s 100-30 favourite Johannes Brahms by three lengths.

The Molecomb at Goodwood’s headline meeting is next on the agenda, a Group Three run over five furlongs, with a trip to the Knavesmire at York also pencilled in later in the season.

Appleby said: “I did quite fancy him because he worked well with Annaf (King’s Stand third) the Saturday before.”

“I was pretty confident he would finish in the first three but I didn’t think he would win like that. Obviously he is a very good horse.

“I had plenty of messages of congratulations afterwards which I was very appreciative of. It is what we do it for and Royal Ascot is where everyone wants to have winners.

“He is more than likely to now go for the Molecomb at Goodwood. I think that is the most obvious target for him and then we will go from there.”

At York the two-year-old could stick to five furlongs for the Nunthorpe, but there is also a chance he could step up a furlong and take on the Gimcrack Stakes instead.

Appleby said: “We’ve said we will possibly look at the Nunthorpe afterwards but Goodwood is next on the agenda. We did half think about going for the Gimcrack at York after Goodwood as well.

“Whether he will get six furlongs I don’t know, but it didn’t look like he was stopping at Ascot.

“At York I think he probably would get six furlongs, but we will get Goodwood done first then make a decision which route we take after that.

“The owner has had a few offers on the table for him but he is not interested in selling him which is good to see.”

Blue Rose Cen is set to make her British bow in the Qatar Nassau Stakes at Goodwood on August 3.

Christopher Head’s French star completed a rare treble at Chantilly when strolling to victory in the Prix de Diane earlier this month, adding to victories in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and last year’s Marcel Boussac – a feat previously achieved by the likes of Zarkava, Divine Proportions and Allez France.

Blue Rose Cen, who has won seven of her nine outings, was stepping up to an extended 10 furlongs for the first time at Chantilly and Head is eager to stick at that trip as the Churchill filly takes on older rivals for the first on the Sussex Downs.

He told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “The main idea is to still keep up with the challenges. The owner has always been bold and daring in racing challenges and we have been talking about the next stage for Blue Rose Cen and he wants to go to the Nassau to do the same as Nashwa did with the Prix de Diane and Nassau double and we really have great faith in her with that programme.

“I don’t think we have got to the limit of that filly yet. I still want to encounter the older fillies without getting into a new distance, so we’ll keep with the distance we know she is best at right now and try to encounter a new panel of fillies to be able to know if she is capable of getting into the Vermeille and then we will pretty much know if she is an Arc or an Opera (horse).

“Even if she is not in the race, it is a possibility she can still be supplemented into the Arc. Leopoldo Fernández Pujals of Yeguada Centurion is a really a bold and daring individual, embracing challenges, so we’re trying to do our best to get the horses to those kind of challenges, and that’s why we’re happy to go to the Nassau.”

Head also trains Big Rock for the same owner, but he failed in his Classic mission when beaten three and a half lengths by Ace Impact in the Prix du Jockey Club.

That was his first attempt over further than nine furlongs and Head feels his future now lies over a mile.

He added: “He’s pretty much a mile horse or a 1800-metre horse and we learned that in the Jockey Club. We will put him onto another path which is the Jacques Le Marois and probably the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes too.”