Newton Abbot
Richard Johnson announces his retirement, while Christian Williams hopes his form continues to Aintree
WHAT appeared to be a quiet, innocuous weekend in the build-up to this week’s Randox Grand National meeting turned out to be anything but when Richard Johnson announced his retirement at low-key Newton Abbott on Saturday.
Johnson has ridden more than 3,800 winners, the second most of all time behind AP McCoy. He has the full set of Cheltenham’s holy trinity (Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase) and, after being runner-up to McCoy 16 times in the title, was champion four times.
However, out of contention in this year’s title and not wanting to steal anyone else’s thunder at Aintree, he decided to call it a day after riding Brother Tedd for Philip Hobbs, for whom he has been stable jockey for over 20 years, in the handicap chase.
“In my dream world I’d have won the Gold Cup on Native River and done it then but I didn’t want to retire having finished fourth because it should be about the winner,” he explained to H&H.
“I wasn’t competitive in the title this year so there was no point
hanging on. The main thing was to go out on one of Philip’s.”
“IT WAS A HUGE MOMENT”
HAVING started off as an amateur, Johnson joined David Nicholson and turned conditional. His first Cheltenham winner was Nicholson’s last, Anzum in the 1999 Stayers Hurdle.
“It was all a bit of a shock,” he recalled. “Anzum was 40/1 and beat the two hotpots, Le Coudray and Lady Rebecca. We’d hoped he’d run well but you don’t go into a race on a 40/1 shot at the Festival and expect to win. It was a huge moment for me at that stage of my career, it propelled me into the top level of the sport.”
A year later he won his first Gold Cup on Looks Like Trouble.
“Winning the Gold Cup the following year for Noel Chance, who is now my father-in-law, was another very special day. I only got the ride two or three weeks beforehand and then suddenly
I’m coming into the winner’s enclosure after the Gold Cup.
“When I rode Native River 18 years later it dawned on me how big a moment it was and how hard they are to come by. Looks Like Trouble is 29 now and lives with us at home, he’s part of the family.
“What more can I say about Native River? Simply, he is just an incredible racehorse and I will dearly miss riding him. We had some amazing days together but obviously the one that meant the most was the Gold Cup. He showed all his class, guts and determination that day.”
Paying tribute, Sir Anthony McCoy said: “There aren’t enough words to praise him and it is going to be hard to fill the gap he leaves. He had what a lot of them don’t have and that’s work ethic. Very few can retire and say, ‘I think I got everything out of that,’ but Richard Johnson certainly can.”
Johnson, whose brother-inlaw Mark Grant also called it a day in the same race, plans to get back involved with the family farm and he already breeds a few horses.