Veteran English trainer Clive Brittain has announced he will retire at the end of the year.

The 81-year-old said the time was right to call it a day.

"Old age would probably be a hint, but I want to spend a few years looking after my wife," Brittain told Press Association Sport.

"She's spent 60-odd years looking after me, so I think it's only fair I spend some time looking after her.

"Where there's a beginning there's an end and I just felt the end was nigh. This is the right time to do it.

"I'm retiring with some regret, as I've had some fantastic owners over the years and still have, as well as great staff.

"I've lived a charmed life."

Brittain enjoyed his first taste of Classic glory with Julio Mariner in the 1978 St Leger, a race he later won the the great User Friendly, who also completed the English-Irish Oaks double in 1992.

He saddled two winners of the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in Pebbles (1984) and Sayyedati (1993).

Pebbles was perhaps Brittain's best ever horse, also winning the Champion Stakes, the Eclipse and the 1985 Breeders' Cup Turf.

He broke new ground for British trainers when Jupiter Island lifted the Japan Cup in 1986.

"I've had a fantastic career with some fantastic horses," Brittain said.

"The likes of Pebbles and Sayyedati and Rizeena most recently.

"We've done things we wouldn't even have dreamed about doing at the start, so I have been very lucky.

"Pebbles winning the Breeders' Cup was really out of this world, along with Jupiter Island winning the Japan Cup."