Christy Roche retired from race riding yesterday and in the true sense of the phrase, an era ended.

That era was etched all over the his face as he dismounted from his last ride, High Stakes, beaten a head in the mile maiden.

The furrows in the deeply tanned face spoke of years of effort, determination and at his best an almost tangible will to win. But the quick eyes and mischievous grin hinted broadly at the touches landed, the prizes gathered and the fun had along the way.

Photographers took their shots and the Tralee executive made a presentation, but considering the subject's achievements, it was all comparatively low key: Just as Roche wanted.

"Coming into the races, I just thought to myself, I've had enough. I rode work at Aidan's (O'Brien) this morning and we'd been looking forward to the week ahead. But I always said that when I'd had enough, I'd call it a day," Roche (48) said yesterday. Roche had been planning to retire at the end of this season anyway, but it was still with some disbelief that his colleagues in the jockeys' room shook hands and wished him well in his burgeoning training career on the Curragh.

"It's always sad when someone retires but Christy has been one of the greats," said Michael Kinane, while John Murtagh added: "Of all the jockeys I've ridden against, Christy has had the greatest will to win."

That will to win has carried Roche from a farming background in south Tipperary to the peak of one of the hardest and most competitive sports. Seven times champion jockey, one of the few riders to have won the Irish, English and French derbies and a host of other big race successes.

The highlights are innumerable but Secreto's epic defeat of El Gran Senor in the 1984 Epsom Derby must have been especially satisfying. Roche's forceful, all-action style was recognised at home, but in an era when the likes of Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery were the imported hired guns to fire the big race bullets, it was important that Ireland's champion could produce the goods abroad.

What makes a 32-year winning career so remarkable, however, is that Roche had never sat a horse before being apprenticed to Paddy Prendergast. A subsequent career spent riding for Vincent and David O'Brien, Jim Bolger and Aidan O'Brien shows how comprehensively he learned. But Roche has never lost contact with racing's roots.

"People talk of highlights with the derbies and so on, but when I think back I'm not so sure. Training a bumper winner or selling on a good bumper horse seems to give me as much of a kick as anything," he said before nominating the best horses he has ridden.

"King Of Kings was the best two-year-old and without any doubt Second Empire is the best three-year-old I've ever ridden," he said. Roche felt the heat of media criticism after Second Empire's controversial Irish 2,000 effort this spring and his reticence with some sections of the press contributed to his desire to a low-key announcement.

"That left a bad taste. I know the press have a job to do and there can be criticism but I was getting it from people I had helped in the past. Maybe that's unfair of me but I found after Second Empire proved me right the last day that there was never a come back from the press.

"Maybe I'm harming myself and doing myself out of going out on a high but I wouldn't feel right going in front of them all and making an announcement," he said.

Aidan O'Brien had no such qualms however and described his former stable jockey as "possibly the best judge of a horse in the world".

"Wherever he has gone, Group Ones and classics have followed and I hope he will continue to be a big part of the team here, riding work. He deserves a gold medal for keeping his weight in check. At least that dog is off his back now."

Roche's former boss Jim Bolger described St Jovite's 1992 Irish Derby victory as the best day they had together and pointed out how Roche will continue to be a part of the Irish racing scene. "I'm sure he will be a formidable trainer and I look forward to competing with him."

Weighing room colleague John Reid yesterday paid tribute to Roche. "I was in Ireland for three years for Vincent (O'Brien) and rode against him and the one thing about Christy is that he's a tough man in the saddle and a tough man out of it.

"He's not afraid of work - he's the hardest-working jockey and everything he has got, he has deserved. This game comes down to hard work and at the end of the day Christy was one of the hardest workers I have ever seen. I think he will make a great trainer too, because he is not afraid of getting his hands dirty."