“Absolutely no idea,” Richard Johnson replies, when asked if he knows how many times he endured a fall last year. “Really?” he says with genuine surprise, on hearing that in 2018 just 16 of his 994 mounts were fallers, when in 2003 it was 38 from 899. “It’s probably fear,” is his tongue‑in‑cheek conclusion. “The more frightened you are, the more you want to stay on.”
Fear, of course, is the one thing that it is not. A jump jockey’s life is still as tough as it gets in professional sport and the risk of a serious, perhaps life-altering, injury remains ever-present. Courage is a prerequisite.
But there is no doubt that Johnson’s job has changed significantly since he rode the first of his 3,622 winners in Britain and Ireland, almost exactly a quarter of a century ago. “When I started out I probably thought if you get to 35 then you’ve had a good innings.”
As things turned out, he did not win the first of his four jockeys’ titles until he was 38. Three years and three more championships later he is still apparently at the peak of his powers.
Tony McCoy, who beat Johnson to the title in 16 of his 20 championship seasons, retired a few days before his 41st birthday. Johnson, 42 in July, having just completed only the second double‑century of his career before being officially crowned the 2018‑19 Stobart Champion Jump Jockey at the Bet365 Jump Finale at Sandown on Saturday.
Sandown 1.50 Harambe 2.25 Cobra De Mai 3.00 Sceau Royal 3.35 Adrien Du Pont (nap) 4.10 Younevercall
4.40 Larry 5.15 Wait For Me
Haydock 1.30 Apparate 2.05 Wahash 2.40 Ouzo
3.15 Fabulist 3.45 Lady Lawyer 4.20 Chingachgook (nb) 4.50 Gurkha Friend 5.25 Bahkit
Leicester 1.40 Enthaar 2.15 Gobi Sunset 2.45 Eqtidaar 3.25 So High 3.55 Don’t Do It 4.30 Molten Lava
5.00 Sucellus 5.35 John Clare
Ripon 1.45 It’s Been Noted 2.20 New Graduate 2.55 Arecibo 3.30 Making Miracles 4.00 King’s Advice 4.35 Eightsome Reel 5.05 Enchanted Linda
Doncaster 5.10 Native Fighter 5.45 Taxiwala 6.15 Alkaraama 6.45 Fujaira Prince 7.15 Sapa Inca 7.45 Porrima 8.15 Rum Lad
Wolverhampton 5.30 Lucky Lodge 6.00 Ustath
6.30 Acker Bilk 7.00 Hermocrates 7.30 Inn The Bull 8.00 Harry Callahan 8.30 One Cool Daddy
“I think the jump jockeys before us were all fit and strong and very dedicated,” Johnson says, “but we’re better looked-after these days, medically, mentally and physically, and like most sports, nutrition is better, fitness is better.
“I also think the standard of training in the last 25 years since I’ve been riding has got better and better. I think horses are prepared better than they’ve ever been and schooled better than they’ve ever been. That’s helping jockeys as well, because there’s a better chance of them jumping better.
“And there’s so much racing now. We used to have two months off in the summer but now it’s basically 12 months of the year. Obviously, you need a bit of luck with injuries and so forth, but if we have an injury, we get the best possible care and our recovery time is probably quicker than it has ever been. All that helps towards a longer career and hopefully when you do finish, you’re in a better state as well.”
McCoy’s unbroken 20-year run as champion jockey until 2014-15 helped him to set an apparently unreachable record of 4,348 career wins. When he retired he was still the only jump jockey to reach 3,000 wins, never mind 4,000. But Johnson immediately enjoyed the best season of his career with 235 winners in 2015‑16 and while he is still odds‑against to overhaul McCoy’s total, it is not nearly as improbable as it seemed four years ago.
“As much as I’d like to think that I could get near his record, what AP achieved was phenomenal,” Johnson says. “He also pushed me forward to try to beat him. Before him, there was Richard Dunwoody, he was probably the person I wanted to be like, and then there was Adrian Maguire and then AP took over from both of them for the next generation coming through.
“To be able to follow in their footsteps, that alone gives me great satisfaction, to feel that I’m in the same sort of area as them, let alone as good as them. For me, to get to 4,000 would be a realistic target, and realistic is what I’d like to be. I know I’m not a spring chicken any more and for me the most important thing is to try to be the champion again next season.”
Johnson is now the target for a younger generation but the bad news for riders such as Harry Skelton and Sam Twiston-Davies is that the hunger for success is as fierce as ever.
“I couldn’t even begin to explain the feeling of riding a winner,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the Cheltenham Festival or Plumpton on a Monday. For me, there’s nothing to compare. If I go a week without a winner, it feels like a year.
“You can never have enough, you always want more, and I think that’s a good hunger. If you don’t want that, then you’re in the wrong job.”
