‘Magic’ Johnson nets share of NZ record
VETERAN jockey Chris Johnson got the win he needed yesterday to equal David Walsh’s record for the most riding wins ever by a New Zealander.
The 56-year-old Johnson left it late to create history, finally getting level with Walsh’s mark of 2450 wins in race seven at Invercargill.
The win came on Point
Score ($6.40) by three-quarters of a length in the penultimate race. The 5-year-old is trained by Ellis Winsloe of Gore.
Johnson used all of his experience to ride a superb race, judging it to perfection on when to move Point Score into the lead, overtaking Henley, then knowing he’d done enough to secure the victory.
Johnson did have one chance to hold the record on his own, when riding Ray’s In Command in the final race.
However, Ray’s In Command finished well down the field, with Ripnroll, ridden by Krishna Mudhoo, the race winner.
Speaking before equalling the record, Johnson said it was never something he ever imagined being possible.
‘‘It’ll be unbelievable [to break it] . . . it would be nice to do it down south,’’ Johnson, of North Canterbury, said.
‘‘When I first started riding I was hoping to get a winner, let alone 100 [winners] or 2000 odd [winners].’’
However, as he closed in on Walsh’s record a few years ago, it was something he decided to focus on.
‘‘I thought it was something to aim for,’’ he said.
Although Johnson has now made it into the record books, he says he doesn’t have any plans to retire just yet.
‘‘If I stopped, what would I do?’’ he said.
‘‘While the body is in one piece, I’ll keep going.’’
He should get the chance to break the record at the Ashburton meeting on Thursday, unless he takes rides at Pukekohe on Wednesday.
Nicknamed ‘Magic’ due to his natural ability and spot-on timing in winning runs, Johnson has battled alcohol problems in the past and tested positive for cannabis at a trial meeting in 2016 and was suspended for eight weeks. A year after his drug suspension he fought back to win the national jockeys’ premiership.
‘‘I know what it is like to go on those benders and get messed up and I don’t do that anymore. Those days are gone,’’ he said.
Apprentice Callum Jones made the most of a late call-up when he guided 22-1 outsider Ocean Billy to victory in yesterday’s $100,000 Waikato Cup (2400m) at Te Rapa.
Rotorua trainer Bill Pomare had struggled to book a rider for the Ocean Park five-year-old and turned to the inexperienced Jones, who had ridden the horse to win an open handicap over 2200m, at Ruakaka in September.
Jones threw caution to the wind midway through as he sent Ocean Billy to take over the pacemaking duties from last year’s winner Justamaiz.
Jones went for the doctor approaching the home turn as he shot three lengths clear on Ocean Billy, who fought like a tiger all the way down the straight to beat race favourite Savy Yong Blonk, who chased him for the last 400m.
‘‘I had a feeling that the further this horse went the better he would be,’’ Pomare said. ‘‘I couldn’t get a jockey as I asked several to ride him and, in the end, I thought ‘I know someone who has won on him’ so that’s why the boy was on him.
‘‘He’s had five rides for me now and won three of them, so I’m rapt for him,’’ he told the NZ Racing Desk.
Jones, who has just 134 race rides under his belt, said: ‘‘I’m really happy and I couldn’t have asked for more, so I’m just stoked.’’
If I stopped, what would I do? While the body is in one piece, I’ll keep going.’ CHRIS JOHNSON