Adam Kirby has confirmed he’s taken a break from race riding but hopes to return to the saddle with a significant landmark still in his sights.
The jockey, who won the Derby aboard Adayar in 2021, has had five winners from 71 rides this season and has been struggling with his ongoing weight battle. He was last declared to ride at Newmarket on August 18 but his intended mount, Intellogent, refused to race.
Speaking on Monday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast, Kirby said: "At the moment I’ve just taken a break because no saunas and losing the weight allowance made everything harder.
"I was in a little battle trying to keep the weight down and decided then to just have a little time out and hopefully we’ll regroup and get the show back on the road in the near future, hopefully.
"I put on quite a lot of weight quickly. You stick yourself to the sword so to speak, obviously I’m quite tall, and I have put on quite a bit of weight but not as much as I thought I would. So it still can happen.
"Hopefully now my body is a lot more healthy and I’m eating and doing things properly, when I start training again the weight will come off."
And if he does return to action, Kirby wants to reach one more career milestone.
"I’d like to get to 2000 winners I’m not that far away from it and I’d like to do that for my kids. Hopefully we’ll come back, get to the 2000 and that’ll be a good enough achievement for me.
"It's a very hard thing when you’ve done it for that many years to let go of it and I don’t think I’m ready to let go at the moment.
"I’m sort of thinking we’ll get most of the winter out of the way, get the Christmas dinner out the way and after that try and regroup and try to get ready to go again."
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