Superb race sees Johnson equalWalsh’s win mark
Veteran jockey Chris Johnson got the win he needed on Saturday to equal David Walsh’s record for the most riding wins by a New Zealander.
Johnson, 59, 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 KrishnaMudhoo, 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.
‘‘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.