LONDON, May 1: Former champion jockey Michael ‘Muis’ Roberts, 47, has retired on the advice of doctors following a severe neck injury last year.

The South African has not ridden since injuring vertebrae in his neck in a fall at Wolverhampton last September.

Roberts won the jockeys’ title 11 times in South Africa before moving permanently to England in 1992 when he lifted the championship at his first attempt with 206 winners.

Bookmakers had offered 100-1 against him at the start of the season.

His biggest victory came in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes on Mtoto at Ascot in 1988 but he also won the English 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks.—Reuters