VETERAN jockey Damian Murphy has retired from riding between the flags, is now set to focus on his training operation, but will continue riding in bumpers.

The 42-year-old, who features within the top 10 all-time winners list having ridden 313 winners, is the ninth most successful rider between the flags of all time.

A number of notable performers have featured within those 313 including Jimmy Mangan’s Grade 1 Powers Gold Cup winner Conna Castle, whom Murphy rode to success at Dungourney, before going on to win a further four straight victories on the bounce aboard the Germany gelding with successes at Ballindenisk and Dromahane, in addition to a brace of bumpers at Thurles and Limerick.

Murphy also teamed-up with Mangan to partner the subsequent 2010 Thyestes Chase winner Whinstone Boy to his maiden success at Kilworth.

It is his association with the Raymond Hurley-trained Whyso Mayo that his time in the saddle in the point-to-point and hunter chase sphere will be most fondly remembered, as Murphy was aboard the Kasmayo gelding on 29 occasions in competitive action, including at the 2006 Cheltenham Festival where the pair combined to spring a 20/1 surprise when landing the Foxhunter Chase with their one-length defeat of Liam Burke’s First Down Jets.

Murphy has already made a strong start to his training career, saddling seven winners to date between the flags, including the impressive Ballindenisk maiden winner Theatre Territory, who was subsequently sold to Robert Waley-Cohen for £200,000.