JUMP jockey Alan Crowe has handed in his licence.

The 34-year-old told The Irish Field: “I have been working in Ballydoyle for the past 18 months and am enjoying it there. I will miss the racing but in recent times I have been doing a lot of driving to ride bad horses, so I made up my mind to give it up after Punchestown.”

Crowe rode numerous big winners for trainer Christy Roche – two Lartigue Hurdles at Listowel on High Stakes and Sword Fish, a Cork Grand National on Streets Of Gold and a Troytown Chase on Groody Hill. He says his best day in the saddle was winning the Grade 1 Juvenile Hurdle at the 2008 Leopardstown Christmas Festival aboard the Roche-trained Lethal Weapon.

He also won a second Troytown on the Peter Casey-trained Jack The Bus and the Grade 1 Punchestown Festival Bumper on the Noel Meade-trained Geill Sli.

“I had some bad injuries early in my career – broken femur and wrist – but thankfully I have been injury-free recently and am happy to walk away on my own terms.”