Liam Heard

Liam Heard was born on December 31, 1985. He won big chases for Paul Nicholls on Eurotrek and future Grand National winner Neptune Collonges as a conditional jockey.

He started out with Nicholls at the age of 15, working there during the school holidays before becoming a conditional for the yard.

Highlights of his time with the Ditcheat trainer included victories on Eurotrek in the 2006 Becher Chase at Aintree and on Neptune Collonges in both the 2006 Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle and 2008 Country Gentleman’s Association Chase at Wincanton.

However, having lost his claim he found winning opportunities hard to come by and struggled to establish himself on the big stage. He rode what turned out to be his last winner on Arthur Mac, trained by Henry Oliver, in a Catterick maiden hurdle on December 28, 2018.

After failing to score from 54 mounts in the 2019/20 National Hunt season and having gone almost 100 rides since his last winner, Liam announced his retirement from the saddle on November 10, 2020 at the age of 34, having found the going particularly tough in recent seasons.

His final ride had been at Southwell on September 3 when The Trendy Man, a 66-1 shot trained by David O’Meara, unseated him at the third flight in juvenile hurdle. By then he had been working for O’Meara in North Yorkshire since February,

In confirming his decision to quit the saddle, Liam said. “I’m riding out, doing odd jobs in the afternoon, lunging yearlings at this time of year. It’s nice to be stable here now, working away in a good job.”