THE taste of another victory has left Leon Nurse reluctant to call time on his charity horse racing career.

The 63-year-old had been expected to retire from the sport and end his time in the saddle after his latest outing at Newbury last Saturday.

However, the Basingstoke and North Hants cricketer, who swapped his whites for racing silks, steered the George Baker trained Uganda Glory to victory and has now changed his mind.

Nurse said: “This was going to be my last ride, but winning was such a great feeling and I want to do it all again.”

However, the charity jockey will only ride again at either the Cheltenham Gold Cup meeting or at Aintree during the Grand National week.

Nurse added: “Riding at Cheltenham and Aintree would be a really great way to finish off in front of a really big crowd.

“I don’t think this will happen this year, but maybe next.

“I am still fit enough to ride, so we will see what happens.”

It should have come as no real surprise when Nurse won at Newbury at the weekend.

The 63-year-old has a really good record at the Berkshire course, having won three of his four rides there, finishing second in the other.

Looking back over the race, Nurse recalled: “I let her go out from the start and we had a nice lead as we got to the far end of the track.

“With four furlongs left, the rest of the field came back to me and there were three of us in a line.

“I asked her to go again, she did and we won by three lengths.”

After his latest victory, there were wild celebra-tions on Nurse’s return to the winner’s enclo-sure as a lot of friends and family had made the trip to Newbury.

Nurse said: “It was really good to see everyone and we had a big party after the win.

“I would like to thank everyone who made this possible.”

As well as Nurse being a winner, the Greatwood Charity also benefitted to the tune of £3,500 from the money he raised from the ride.

Now it remains to be seen if Nurse will get his dream final ride at Cheltenham or Aintree.