JOHNSTON’S BIG BEN BOOST
A PARTNERSHIP with record- breaking trainer Mark Johnston will give Ben Curtis “an extra leg up” towards the 2021 jockeys title.
Yesterday’s Sunday Mirror exclusively revealed that the Middleham- based Scot ( right), the winning- most trainer in British racing history, would be giving Curtis “more and more” opportunities this season.
And the 31- year- old, whose
170- winner total for 2020 was the highest in Britain, said yesterday: “It’s a great job to get – a fantastic opportunity and one I couldn’t turn down. Everyone wants to be champion jockey, and it’s definitely going to give me an extra leg up.”
Curtis, who finished fifth in the riders’ table with 92 winners last season – Oisín Murphy topped the standings with 142 victories – is a 7- 2 chance with Ladbrokes to capture the 2021 crown.
“I need 35- 40 more winners than I’ve been getting to get competitive with Oisín Murphy and William Buick,” added the Irishman, who will join Joe Fanning and Franny Norton at the top of the Kingsley Park yard’s pecking order. “If you look at the end of William Buick’s season, the last month and a half he rode a lot for the Mark Johnston team and he got a lot of winners from him.
“If that could work the same for m me, then there should be no reason why we shouldn’t be competitive.
“This is something that could possibly bring those winners to the fore and, if it do does, I’ll be giving it 110 per cent.”
Kim Bailey reported leading Ryanair Chase fancy Imperial Aura none the worse for his second- fence departure in Saturday’s Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton Park.