Racing: Leaving on a high

By MIKE DILLON

Michelle Hopkins picked the perfect moment to announce her retirement.

She shocked everyone with: "I'm retiring," as she jumped off Wanderlust after running away with yesterday's $100,000 Mercedes Great Northern Steeplechase.

Hopkins is one of New Zealand's best jumps jockeys with 106 victories and, despite an injury-laden career, has plenty of career wins in her.

"I could ride for the next 10 years and be no better off financially," said Hopkins.

"But I could end up with a lot of twisted and broken bones."

Hopkins was thinking of the badly broken leg she received in a race fall at Paeroa at the start of the winter of 2002.

It cost her dearly when Rochelle Lockett replaced her for a lucrative contract in Japan.

She was also thinking of her fiance Jason Strawbridge standing nearby.

And also of their December 4 wedding. Strawbridge is a grandson of Te Awamutu trainer Kevin O'Conner, who prepared Sir Avion in the famous 2001 dead-heat with Hopkins.

Hopkins is a thrill junkie.

It was an interesting moment on the Ellerslie victory podium yesterday when Mercedes boss Ernie Ward presented her with the rider's trophy.

It's only a couple of years ago that Hopkins nearly broke Ward's back pushing him into a concrete wall during a go-cart race Mercedes and the Auckland Racing Club used as a media launch for the carnival.

"I'd like to do that again," said Hopkins yesterday and you imagine, or hope, she means the race itself and not the concrete wall incident.

"But I'll still get the risks because I'll be schooling horses at home."

Hopkins said she would ride out this year, but would not take mounts after her marriage.