Mattie Batchelor
Jump jockey Mattie Batchelor didn’t start riding until he was fifteen and admits he was no natural. “I was very manufactured,” he said, “but I wanted to do it.”
He rode around 200 winners in Britain during a near 30-year career, recording his greatest successes on King Harald in the 2005 Jewson Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and, most famously, on Carruthers, the horse bred by Lord Oaskey, in the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup.
As well as his association with Carruthers, he won two Cheltenham Grade 2 novice hurdles on Carruthers’ half-brother Coneygree, who went on to win the 2015 Gold Cup in the hands of Nico de Boinville.
Mattie was a well-liked member of the weighing room, renowned for his jokes and storytelling. An indication of the regard in which his fellow jockeys held him was evident in the reception he received from them when winning a handicap hurdle at Ascot on the Jamie Poulton-trained Bangkok Pete in February 2016.
He spent the summers plying his trade at Les Landes, the picturesque racecourse in Jersey, where he enjoyed plenty of success over the years.
His last winner in England was 33-1 shot Noble Glance, trained by Camilla Poulton, in a Fontwell Park novices’ hurdle on 22 August 2019. He had his final English ride when pulling up 80-1 outsider Millie Meloo in a Fontwell bumper on 30 January 2022.
His last ten mounts were all in Jersey, winning aboard Hidden Depths on his final ride in the Lady Brenda Cook Memorial Handicap Hurdle at Les Landes’ last meeting of the season on 29 August 2022.
He made the decision to hang up his boots when rides in Jersey began to dry up, although he had planned to end his career at an English track.
He said: “The idea was to get a final ride at Plumpton because a few years ago they let me put some of my Mum’s ashes on the winning line, so it would have been sentimental, but it didn’t come to fruition and my hip is playing me up as well now. My licence ran out at the beginning of December (2022) and I didn’t see much point in renewing it.”
He confirmed his retirement from the saddle in January 2023, aged 46.
Away from racing, he has had part-time jobs in sales for Chanelle Pharma and at a partition glazing company. In recent years, he has been a popular host at racecourses up and down the country.
