From Seal King win to a pair of Gold Cup triumphs
BACK in 1995 when I interviewed the recently retired National Hunt jockey Richard Johnson, after he had won the second division of the restricted open race on 25-1 chance Seal King at the Monmouthshire Hunt PointTo-Point Steeplechases at Llanvapley, I never thought that I was speaking to a future National Hunt jockey who in a 27-year career would go on to ride 3,819 winners which included two Cheltenham Gold Cups – Looks Like Trouble (2000) and Native River (2018) – and the 2003 Champion Hurdle on Rooster Booster.
Johnson, 43, who finished runner-up in the Jockeys’ Championship some 16 times, had to compete against the legendary Sir Anthony McCoy, who had the powerful trainer Martin Pipe behind him, and after McCoy retired Johnson won the title in four consecutive seasons.
In his book Richard Johnson: Out Of The Shadows (Breedwater Publishing), Johnson tells us that his parents Keith and Sue farmed in Herefordshire on either side of a narrow lane between Bridge Sollers and Madley and that his father rode in point-to-points.
Well, I can recall his father winning point-to-points in the Cambridge blue colours of Mrs Cynthia Higgon and I reported those wins for the Western Mail many years ago now.
It was at his local racecourse Hereford that Richard rode his first winner under Rules in a hunter’s chase on his grandfather’s Rusty Bridge.
However, it’s back to farming now for Richard, who certainly made a name for himself in the world of horse-racing and who is said to be one of the nicest people one could meet.
Another former point-to-point rider who is making a name for himself under National Hunt rules is west Wales’ Lorcan Williams, who at Taunton last Thursday won on his only two mounts for top trainer Paul Nicholls.
Lorcan scored on Tulin in the opening novices’ hurdle and on Kando Kid in the National Hunt flat race.