Why Native River meant so much to Richard Johnson’s illustrious career

“Every winner is fantastic. When you get a chance to ride horses like Native River, they are what you dream of,” the former champion jockey told The Yorkshire Post in an exclusive interview.

“I still dream at night of winning big races on horses like him.”

With very good reason. Three years after Native River, an archetypal winter steeplechaser, broke the heart of Might Bite in a pulverising finish to the 2017 Gold Cup, a fourth tilt at the blue riband race is on the horizon.

Johnson, 43, and the 11-year-old Native River, National Hunt’s most popular ‘veterans’, line up in today’s rearranged Cotswold Chase at Sandown – weather permitting – when they hope jumping accuracy will prevail.

If all goes to plan, it will put Garth and Anne Broom’s horse, trained by Colin Tizzard, spot on for next month’s Gold Cup.

But, whatever the future holds as Johnson dares to dream, the white-faced Native River will always have a special place in the affections of a jockey who has won nearly 4,000 races and is second only to Sir AP McCoy on the all-time list.

Johnson, the son of Herefordshire farmers, had already won Cheltenham’s four main championship races by his mid-20s courtesy of Anzum (1999 Stayers’ Hurdle), Looks Like Trouble (2000 Gold Cup), Flagship Uberalles (2002 Champion Chase) and Rooster Booster (2003 Champion Hurdle).

Ironically, it would take him until 2016 to become champion jockey for the first of four successive years before being eclipsed by North Yorkshire’s Brian Hughes last season.

Yet it is Native River – and a chance ride at the 2016 Grand National meeting – that has given racing aficionados to appreciate Johnson’s qualities as a fearless horseman, one of the most positive riders of all time, and serial accumulator of winners.

Second in the National Hunt Chase for amateur riders at Cheltenham, the Tizzard team were looking for a jockey to partner the redoubtable Native River in the Grade One Betfred Mildmay Novices’ Chase.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” reflected Johnson, between races at Wincanton this week. “The horse hadn’t a jockey and I’d ridden for the owners before at Philip’s (Hobbs).

“Colin (Tizzard) said he would suit my way of riding – just keep being positive. He’s very straightforward and, as everyone knows, his form speaks for itself. He’s just a special horse to have anything to do with.

“Even as a novice, he was big and bold and stayed very well. That win at Aintree was the first time I had sat on him and I really enjoyed it.”

Yet it was Native River’s reappearance, in the 2016 West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby that lingers because of the looks of excited anticipation etched across the beaming faces of Johnson and Tizzard after the horse had chased home Silsol on quicker than ideal ground.

The jockey remembers it well. “He was a good novice hurdler and it was an ideal place to take him and give him a nice gallop,” he said. “He finished the race very well and Colin was pretty sure, and I was a hopeful, that a fence at Newbury would bring out more achievement.”

They were not wrong. Victory in the celebrated Hennessy Gold Cup was followed by a mighty weight-carrying performance to land the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow.

Third to Sizing John in the 2017 Gold Cup, ground conditions were in Native River’s favour 12 months later when a remorseless round of jumping on rain-softenend ground denied Might Bite in a race for the ages.

Yet the occasion is as remembered as much for the race as the outpouring of joy for Johnson – universally known as ‘Dicky’ – at finally getting the wider recognition he deserved. “It had all gone really well but I didn’t particularly appreciate winning a Gold Cup at 22,” he said. “You only realise how hard things are further down the line.

“When I won on Native River 18 years after Looks Like Trouble, I appreciated it a little bit more. It would be nice to think we can go back there next month with a great chance. I’m dreaming.”

Though the odds are against Johnson reclaiming his jump title, racing provides escapism from home schooling his three children in lockdown. “It definitely beats that,” he laughs. “I’m crap at it and the kids are crap at it. Two wrongs don’t make a right. My wife deserves a medal.”

But it also gives the weighing room’s senior statesman a chance to nurture the next generation of riders by leading – and winning – by example. This matters. “I was very lucky to have senior jockeys to support me when I started,” he stressed. “The weighing room can be a daunting place, but it’s nice to see the young riders coming through and enjoying it.”

Just as their fortune is to have a role model as respected as Richard Johnson, it is his luck to have a career-defining horse as his career in the saddle enters the home straight. He’s earned it.

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