JOHNSON TITLE BLOW
Festival target as champ breaks arm
CHAMPION jump jockey Richard Johnson expects to ride at the Cheltenham Festival despite breaking his arm at Exeter yesterday, but a fifth successive jockeys’ championship is scuppered.
Philip Hobbs, trainer of Westend Story, the horse that Johnson was unseated from in the novice chase at Exeter, said: “He has broken his right arm, in between the elbow and the hand.
“He is going to have an operation on it, to have it plated, either tomorrow or Thursday. He expects to be off for a month or so, but he sounded very positive about Cheltenham.”
The Professional Jockeys’ Association point out the average length of time between riders suffering a fracture to their arm and returning to racing is 62 days.
And with the Festival just 48 days away, Johnson faces a race against time to make the meeting where he has a host of fancied rides, including top novice hurdler Thyme Hill for Hobbs and 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Native River.
Hobbs added: “Hopefully he’ll be riding before Cheltenham, but it’s obviously going to be more than a month before he is riding again.
“I suppose his championship aspirations are likely gone, but at the same time it would be worse if it happened in six weeks’ time rather than now.”
Brian Hughes, his nearest rival in the jockeys’ title race, is three winners ahead following a treble at Newcastle on Monday.
The 34-year-old Irishman is now on the brink of becoming only the third rider to be crowned champion since Tony McCoy began his 20-year reign in 1996.