History-making Johnson still harbours champion ambitions

WHO is the only current jockey to have won the big four races at the Cheltenham Festival – the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and World Hurdle?

Ruby Walsh, the most successful rider in modern Festival injury with 24 triumphs to his name, including a record seven successes last year?

No, the Champion Hurdle continues to elude him – despite Celestial Halo's bold run a year ago that saw him lose out to Punjabi in driving finish.

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The record-breaking Tony McCoy, who stands on the brink of a 15th successive jockeys' championship? Wrong again – the World Hurdle is missing from his CV.

Likewise Barry Geraghty – Nicky Henderson's stable jockey and the aforementioned Punjabi's rider. He, too, has always found one too good for him in the World Hurdle.

The answer, in fact, is the ever-modest Richard Johnson – the perennial runner-up to the seemingly impregnable McCoy in the championship race and who rode his 2,000th career winner shortly before the Arctic weather began to curtail the National Hunt fixture list.

Relaxing with his young family, the enforced break has given the 32-year-old the chance to reflect on the magnitude of his achievements thus far after the aptly-named Fighting Chance carried him into the record books on December 17.

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Only the second rider in history to reach the landmark, Johnson rode his 2,000th winner with the minimum of fuss compared to the abandonments and falls that delayed McCoy's quest for his 3,000th success a year ago.

Yet Johnson's under-stated nature – he is a successful sportsman who praises everyone apart from himself, and also goes out of his way to help young riders making their way – hides a steely determination to be number one and lose the, at times, exasperating sobriquet "the best jockey never to be champion".

"If you'd asked me when I started out whether I would ride 2,000-plus winners, I would have laughed," said Johnson.

"I just didn't think it was possible. But I've been fortunate to ride for some very good trainers – and the winners have stacked up.

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"Yes, it was a relief to get the 2,000th out of the way before the snow and frost. It would have been very frustrating if I had been one or two short; I'm one of those people who perhaps doesn't enjoy the limelight as much as others.

"I think the speculation and everything would have been difficult. I was also very flattered when all the jockeys came out of the weighing room at Newbury to lift me onto their shoulders; I didn't realise I was that popular."

Of course, Johnson would like to be champion. He has been runner-up to McCoy every season for more than a decade.

But, unlike the three-times champion Richard Dunwoody, who believes the title race should be settled on prize money rather than the volume of winners, Johnson disagrees – even though it would give him a fighting chance of getting one over on his perennial nemesis.

"I think it should be on the number of winners," he said.

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"For me, it's as much about riding winners at Plumpton, Catterick and Sedgefield on a Monday as the Saturday job and the big races.

"No disrespect to Barry Geragthy and Ruby Walsh – they're great riders – but is it right that they just come over for the big races?

"I think it would be very difficult to stomach for them to cover and become champion on prize money, and not ride here most days."

Johnson still believes that he will get a chance to be champion – even though McCoy, at 35, is showing little inclination to slow down or contemplate retirement.

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His challenge has been hampered in the past by a couple of badly-timed injuries – including a broken leg – when he was within touching distance of McCoy.

Though trailing again this season, Johnson will travel from his home in deepest Herefordshire to Southwell tomorrow for a couple of rides on the all-weather circuit "to keep his hand in" and get back to some semblance of normality.

Inclement weather and hazardous roads are only a minor inconveinence to jump jockeys who will go anywhere in search of a winner.

Even McCoy might fly back prematurely from his enforced golfing holiday in Barbados if there is a potental winner to be ridden, though Johnson says he would be "mad" to do so as the dirt from the all-weather surface kicks up into the faces of the riders.

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"The day I no longer have that hunger, that desire, will be the day that it is time to hang up my riding boots," said Johnson.

"They're some good riders coming through – Wayne Hutchinson is under-rated, Aidan Coleman and Giles Hawkins for my boss Philip Hobbs – but that's good. They're helping keep me on my toes!"

One horse that Johnson is looking forward to riding at this year's Cheltenham Festival – weather permitting – is the smart novice hurdler Menorah, an impressive Boxing Day winner at Kempton.

"It seems a pretty good novice hurdle, and, hopefully, the form will hold up in March," said Johnson, who already has 15 Festival winners to his name.

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He is also pleased to report that veteran staying chaser Monkerhostin, owned by Pocklington businessman Martin St Quinton, is back in training after a brief retirement. "He didn't take to hunting, is too highly-rated for point-to-points so the Betfred Gold Cup, which he won a couple of years ago, or the Scottish National will come into the frame," said Johnson.

"He's been a great servant to me – winning the Coral Cup at Cheltenham on him was special. So, so honest."

Johnson's great days at Cheltenham are headed by the injury-plagued 2000 Gold Cup winner Looks Like Trouble, 2002 Champion Chase hero Flagship Uberalles and Rooster Booster, the great grey who battled up the Cheltenham hill in 2003 to win the Champion Hurdle.

This triumvirate were among the most popular horses in training. But, from the jockey's perspective, it is the unheralded Anzum – the 1999 World Hurdle winner – that was the most significant.

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"It was my first Festival winner," said Johnson, who came from another county to galvanise the 40-1 outsider and get up on the line to land the three-mile marathon.

"He was also trained by my old boss 'The Duke' – David Nicholson – who was so good to me and gave my first break into the sport.

"He's no longer with us but I wouldn't be who I am without the confidence he gave me when he gave me a chance. He was a great rider in his own right, and then a brilliant trainer. I was privileged to ride for him.

"It's why Anzum's victory will always be so special – and not because McCoy and Walsh have not yet done the clean sweep. I'll enjoy my little piece of history while I still can!"

CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL WINNERS

Richard Johnson's winners:

World Hurdle: 1999 Anzum

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Racing Post Plate: 2000 Dark Stranger, 2003 Young Spartacus

Gold Cup: 2000 Looks Like Trouble

Queen Mother Champion Chase: 2002 Flagship Uberalles

County Hurdle: 2002 Rooster Booster

Champion Hurdle: 2003 Rooster Booster

RSA Chase: 2003 One Knight

Cathcart: 2003 La Landiere

Coral Cup: 2004 Monkerhostin

Triumph Hurdle: 2004 Made In Japan, 2006 Detroit City

Ballymore Properties: 2007 Massini's Maguire