As Paul Hanagan bows out after a 25-year career in the saddle, we reflect on five of the dual champion jockey’s best horses:

TAGHROODA

Taghrooda won her only juvenile start and then blazed home by six lengths in the Pretty Polly Stakes to mark herself as a Classic contender. She went to post as a 5-1 shot for John Gosden in the Oaks, making easy work of a near four-length win before exploiting the three-year-old allowance to perfection to follow up in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. Narrowly beaten as the 1-5 favourite in the Yorkshire Oaks, she rounded off her career when beaten just over three lengths into third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

MUHAARAR

The sprint king of 2015, Muhaarar’s ability was evident when winning the Gimcrack the previous season. Trained by Charlie Hills, Muhaarar won the Greenham which prompted a crack at the French 2000 Guineas, but after failing to stay he dropped back to six furlongs and mopped up the Commonwealth Cup, July Cup and Prix Maurice de Gheest before signing off with a British Champions Sprint triumph.

WOOTTON BASSETT

Wootton Bassett was a landmark horse for the Paul Hanagan-Richard Fahey axis, providing the pair with their first Group One success in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. That victory capped a five-race unbeaten juvenile campaign for the colt, which also included a couple of richly-endowed sales events at Doncaster and York along the way. While he did not win at three, he has gone on to prove a stallion revelation with a welter of Group One winners and a current stud fee of €150,000.

SANDS OF MALI

Winner of the 2017 Gimcrack Stakes, he took the Sandy Lane and finished second in the Commonwealth Cup the following spring, but by the time midsummer came around, it looked as though he had posted his best as he turned in a couple of lacklustre runs. However, soft ground at Ascot in the autumn saw him roar back to form and defy his odds of 28-1 to win the British Champions Sprint on what was his final run in Hanagan’s hands.

MAYSON

At his peak in his four-year-old season, Mayson won the Abernant and Palace House Stakes on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile before successfully switching to the July course to land the July Cup later in the campaign. He had only one more run after that, when edged by a neck in the Prix de l’Abbaye at ParisLongchamp, completing a fine rise through the ranks to bow out with a rating of 119.

Classic-winning jockey Paul Hanagan has announced he will retire from the saddle after riding at York on Friday.

The 42-year-old enjoyed Epsom glory when steering Taghrooda to victory in the 2014 Oaks, before the duo went on to land the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes and finish third to Treve in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Hanagan was the leading apprentice in 2002 and was crowned champion jockey twice – first winning the title in 2010 when he rode 205 winners in a calendar year and successfully defending his crown in 2011, when he partnered 177 winners over the 12 months.

Recent seasons have proved more difficult, suffering a serious fall in February 2020 that resulted in three fractured vertebrae and a prolonged period on the sidelines, eventually returning to action in August that year and steering Majestic Dawn to a popular victory in the Cambridgeshire the following month.

Hanagan has ridden 14 winners so far this year and feels it is the right time to depart the weighing room, with his final ride due to come aboard the Richard Fahey-trained Wootton’Sun.

He said: “As you can imagine it’s quite emotional. It’s difficult, I think any professional sportsperson will tell you, especially doing it as long as I’ve been doing it for.

“There’s a few things involved in making my decision, I had a pretty bad fall about two years ago and I’ve never quite been the same after it, I fractured my back in three places.

“It’s not so much painful riding, but it’s getting to the level of fitness you need to be at to be a professional jockey and I don’t think I was getting to that standard.”

The Rob Burrow Racing Club celebrated its first winner on Thursday when the Craig Lidster-trained Macarone came home clear at Beverley.

The club was set up to raise money for several charities, but principally the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), the illness which former Rugby League star Burrow was diagnosed with in 2019.

Macarone, a two-year-old by Havana Grey, was having his first run for the club after finishing second at Bath last time out and the well-backed 7-2 winner was roared home.

Former champion jockey Paul Hanagan, a keen Rugby League fan, punched the air on crossing the line and admitted the result meant a lot to him.

Hanagan said: “I’ve been blessed to ride a lot of winners in my career and I can safely say today is bang up there with the best of them. It was definitely emotional with Rob and his family being here too. It really doesn’t get much better.

“The reception we got coming back in was something I’ll never forget, and I can’t tell you how chuffed I am. You always know it’s something special when the other jockeys start applauding you when you come back in the weighing room.

“It was a very special day and hopefully this will be onwards and upwards for the Rob Burrow Racing Club.”

Burrow said: “Well done Macarone! You’ve given the Rob Burrow Racing Club our first win, and I couldn’t be prouder!

“Racing can be tough at times, and just like rugby, it has its ups and downs. Macarone has given us a perfect result today though. It’s been worth the wait.”

Burrow’s wife, Lindsey, added: “I was screaming so loudly I might have lost my voice!”

Barrie McDermott, a former colleague of Burrow’s at the Leeds Rhinos, and an ambassador of the club, told Racing TV: “We’ve had a few scripts that haven’t gone to plan, but today did.

“Paul is such an experienced rider, he talked us through his plan and he executed it to perfection.

“We’re delighted, delighted for Rob and Lindsey (Burrow) and all the members.

“The club is evolving all the time, we’re trying to turn it into a 12-month membership while raising money for charity. MND is an awful disease and Rob’s desire is to make people understand how it affects everybody and what they can do to help.

“He’s such an inspirational man. He’s not been burdened by the inevitability of what is in front of him, he’s been campaigning so those that follow him can have a bit of an easier path and for that we all love him.”