Champion jockey faces suspension
Leading New Zealand jockey Chris Johnson faces at least a month on the sidelines after he was stood down from racing on Saturday after failing a breathalyser test after his first ride at Riccarton.
The Canterbury-based 56-year-old was stood down for the day by stipendiary stewards after riding Aquattack to third place in race one.
His stand-down cost him the chance to rack up a win on Turncoat, with stand-in rider Lee Callaway piloting the horse to victory.
Johnson is just 10 victories away from equalling David Walsh’s record for the most wins in New Zealand, 2451.
Johnson, who admitted to struggles with alcohol abuse in the past, faces a suspension of one month to six weeks, judging by similar cases.
The jockey confirmed he had been drinking on Friday night but not excessively, and denied he was impaired by alcohol.
‘‘I had a few on Friday night, a couple of beers and some bourbons but nothing serious. I was in bed by 11pm,’’ Johnson told the New Zealand Herald.
‘‘The problem was I didn’t eat. I was wasting [trying to quickly drop weight] so I could ride a couple of horses at 54kg so I didn’t have dinner on Friday night and no breakfast on Saturday.
‘‘And I spent an hour in the spa to get some weight off in the morning so when I got to the races I must have had the alcohol still in my system but I definitely wasn’t drunk or impaired.’’
Johnson said he drove the horse truck to the races on Saturday ‘‘because I was fine’’. He said his reading was 145mcg, over the limit of 100mcg for jockeys riding in races. The limit for a driver of a motor vehicle over 20 is 250mcg.
In a long career, dating back to the 1980s, Johnson has ridden 2441 winners for $29.9 million in stakes, despite taking a seven-year break between 1998 to 2005.
With NZ Racing Desk