Johnson goes on attack to bridge 18-year gap
Champion’s trademark patience discarded as Native River takes him to second Gold Cup win
Richard Johnson waited 20 years to succeed AP Mccoy as Champion National Hunt jockey and 18 for his second Cheltenham Gold Cup win. He is a patient sort, but was not waiting around with Native River in the Festival’s grandest race.
Strong in the finish, as he repelled Might Bite in a classic Gold Cup duel, Johnson paid for his forceful riding with a £6,550 fine and seven-day suspension for “using his whip above the permitted level from the secondlast [fence]”.
Nico de Boinville barely used his stick on Might Bite because he knew his horse was empty, so the contrast probably counted against Johnson, who did not seem to be applying excessive force.
Native River attacked this Gold Cup from the off, and broke his only pursuer, Might Bite, up the Cheltenham hill, which hollows out so many horses.
Johnson, 40, was always a brilliant horseman, but from 1996-2015 found Mccoy unpassable in the jockeys’ championship. Now, he dominates the profession, just as Native River took control of Might Bite in a private contest over the 3¼ miles.
Looks Like Trouble, Johnson’s previous Gold Cup winner, lives in a field on the jockey’s sheep farm in Herefordshire. Native River might one day double the feed bill.
The Festival had been going badly for Johnson when he climbed aboard the tough, willing Native River, in search of virgin ground at the head of a Gold Cup field condemned to slog through Cotswold mud. He drew a blank over the first three days but leaves the Festival with the most cherished prize of all.
Again, Johnson is used to waiting. He was runner-up 16 times in Mccoy’s run of 20 title wins: 16 silver medals in 22 years as a jockey to that point. When Mccoy stepped down at Sandown, Johnson won the champion’s final race and was part of a guard of honour that clapped him out after 4,358 victories.
“It was a friendly rivalry and we perhaps pushed each other to go to Perth or Cartmel or Kelso or Plumpton,” Johnson recalled when he finally took over as champ, in 2016. “We never wanted a day off. It was 100 per cent all the time. That hopefully made AP achieve what he achieved and it made me keep trying. The dream to win and the will to win have always been there.”
Johnson has ridden some fine horses at the Festival – Looks Like Trouble, Flagship Uberalles and Rooster Booster among them
– but Native River is the most memorable, because he beat the gifted Might Bite with tactics and tenacity. The decision to make all was rewarded.
Johnson said: “Some people out here will know I’m not the most intelligent in the world so keeping it simple is the best way forward for me.
“For me, the Gold Cup is the most important race of the year. I know for some the Grand National is the people’s race, but this is the best of the best. It’s everyone’s dream to own a Gold Cup horse and to ride one is brilliant. The championship has always been my main target, but when you can have one or two of these along the way they are very special.
“He answered every call at the last and on the run in just kept going. I’m not sure we’ll ever see conditions this testing again, but he’s just a warrior and it’s a pleasure to ride him.”
The long wait since Looks Like Trouble might have persuaded him that he was a one-hit wonder in steeplechasing’s blue riband. It certainly made Native River’s win sweeter.
“Eighteen years ago I didn’t realise it was quite hard to win a Gold Cup. I thought it all came quite easy,” Johnson said. “Now I realise how hard it is to get a Gold Cup horse, let alone win it. I think now I appreciate it more. I’ve had three very quiet days and this brings you out on the other side of it.”
All week we hoped the old romance would interrupt the flow of winners for a handful of owners and trainers. Native River’s win was that splash of Cheltenham tradition. His trainer, Colin Tizzard, said: “I came here as a 17-year-old young farmer and stood on the Red Cross hut at the last fence, never ever thinking I’d have a runner or be a trainer. The Gold Cup is everything, and the fact that we’ve won it is unreal. With horses you’re never so far away from having a good one as you might think. It’s a fantastic way to spend your life.”
Sometimes you just need to be patient, as Johnson has been, not over years but decades.
‘Eighteen years ago I didn’t realise it was hard to win. Now I know it is hard just to get a Gold Cup horse’