I made £3m as a jockey but fled Britain for paradise island

A TOP jockey who earned over £3million fled Britain for a paradise island - and insists life has never been better.

Stevie Donohoe now lives the Instagram lifestyle, working a maximum three days a week, sipping cocktails and sitting on the beach every day.

He says he wakes up without stress and whiles away his days smoking cigars, relaxing and being with his loved ones.

Stevie was a multiple Group level-winning jockey in Blighty and one of his biggest days came when winning the Coventry on Rajasinghe in 2017.

He also bagged the German 2000 Guineas on Maljoom last year for boss William Haggas.

But Irish-born Stevie, 39, said he felt like he was just 'surviving' racing in Britain.

The long hours spent in solitude driving up and down motorways to racetracks, the battle to make weight and the pressure to race for little money eventually all took their toll.

Stevie upped sticks and hopped on a flight to luxury holiday destination Mauritius after finishing riding here last year - and has never looked back.

The tropical island, in the south west Indian Ocean, boasts jaw-dropping blue waters, powder-white beaches and temperatures never lower than 24C.

The sea temperature is warm all year round, reaching 27C during summer - some ten degrees warmer than the UK summer sea temperature.

Racing takes place away from the stunning waterfalls and wondrous rainforests, meaning Stevie has easily been able to take his skills there.

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Describing his new life, he told the Racing Post: "In Mauritius I live such a nice life where I sit on a beach every day rather than sit in traffic.

"I wake up with no stress, no pressure and we only race once a week on a Saturday.

"I feel appreciated out there rather than here where I was just surviving.

"I was getting to a point where organising everything to get to the track was too much. The riding was the easy part."

Stevie follows in the footsteps of fellow former champion apprentice Martin Lane, who quit racing to work in a five-star luxury resort on Malolo island, just off Fiji.

If Stevie's Instagram is anything to go by then it looks like he made the right choice.

In between photos of his glory days in British racing are snaps of him living the high life abroad.

One minute he's captain of a boat steering it out at sea, the next he's on the beach with his paddleboard, his 'new mode of transportation'.

Beats sitting in traffic on the M1.

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