Premiership title awaits Johnson

Canterbury rider Chris Johnson will have to wait another 29 days until he is crowned the winner but the race for the national jockeys’ premiership is all but over.

Bookmakers yesterday announced they were waving the white flag and paying out on Johnson for the premiership.

Johnson started yesterday’s Te Rapa meeting 11 wins ahead of the second-placed Danielle Johnson but he quickly improved his lead to 12 with a fourlength victory aboard Francis Drake in the third race.

Importantly, Danielle Johnson has also conceded defeat.

She left for Sweden last night to ride in the inaugural Lady Jockeys’ Thoroughbred World Championship but has confirmed she will extend her stay because she did not believe she could catch Johnson.

With Matthew Cameron already on holiday, the only danger to Johnson was Alysha Collett.

At the conclusion of yesterday’s Te Rapa meeting, Johnson had recorded 106 winners for the season.

Collett picked up a winner with High Class in race four to advance to 90.

Bookmakers opened Johnson at $51 and plenty of punters got on board with $10 and $5 bets but the big investments came later.

One punter put on $160 at $31 and there was a $250 bet at $21. The money did not stop when Johnson took control of the premiership race.

An $18,000 investment came at $1.65 and $2,000 went on at $2.50.

The last of the major bets on Johnson was a $3,500 bet that was placed at the skinny odds of $1.10.