It is almost a quarter of a century since National Hunt’s champion jockey was someone other than Tony McCoy or Richard Johnson. In truth, it’s pretty much that long since anyone else was even a credible contender, as Johnson was the only rival within hailing distance in most of the 20 seasons in which McCoy had an iron grip on the title.
But could April 2020 be the month when a new name finally emerges? The betting markets seem to think so. Brian Hughes was a 7-2 chance for the title on Monday morning but less than 24 hours later – and after both had registered a single winner on the Monday cards – he is top-priced at 2-1. That is, on the face of it, some shift in such a short space of time when the season is seven months old and has five more to run.
Has Johnson been spotted sizing up retirement properties somewhere sunny and warm? At the age of 42, no one would blame him, but it would not really tally with an interview over the weekend, when Johnson insisted he intends to keep riding even if he loses his crown this season. Instead, it just seems as though the market has been a little slow to wake up to the reality that, after 25 years when the betting for the jump jockeys’ title has been as dead as a Norwegian Blue, this year’s race really does look like it will go to the wire.
Hughes, who is the dominant force on the northern circuit, was a long way adrift last time around, finishing the 2018-19 season in third place with 146 winners, behind Johnson (200) and Harry Skelton (178).
He did miss the last few weeks due to injury, however, and hit the ground running for the summer campaign, picking up 62 wins between May and September. Johnson, meanwhile, also registered 62 wins in the first five months of the title race, when a white-hot July, with 22 wins from 61 rides, was followed by a miserable August, with only two wins from 50.
And Hughes has all but matched the champion since. Before the start of racing on Tuesday, Johnson has added another 18 winners to sit on 80 for the season while Hughes is four adrift on 76, having taken 13 fewer rides than his rival since the end of September.
In the circumstances, it is perhaps a little surprising that the 7-2 about Hughes, which had been the best price on offer since 24 October, lasted as long as it did. Some punters, meanwhile, are sitting on 16-1 vouchers from May and June, happy in the knowledge that Hughes has outscored Johnson between November and April in two of the past three seasons.
This is jumps racing, of course, and an injury could intervene at any moment, but without wishing to tempt fate, it is worth remembering that top jump jockeys do not suffer falls anything like as regularly now as they did in the past. Johnson has had just five falls from 410 rides this season, while Hughes has had seven from 354. The stage seems set for a title race that will run and run.
Both are in action with four booked rides each at Huntingdon (Hughes) and Lingfield (Johnson). Reve (2.50) looks like Johnson’s best chance of a winner while Sebastopol (1.40) and Veiled Secret (3.10) are both big runners for Hughes. At Hereford, meanwhile, Nearly Perfect (2.00) and Hen (4.00) should both go well at decent odds.
Huntingdon
12.40 Archimento 1.10 Blue N Yellow 1.40 Sebastopol (nap) 2.10 Dandridge 2.40 Dan Gun 3.10 Veiled Secret 3.40 Shinobi
Lingfield
12.50 Joseph Hobson 1.20 Cat Tiger 1.50 Colonel Keating 2.20 Song Of The Sky 2.50 Reve 3.20 Tanrudy
Hereford
1.30 No Getaway 2.00 Nearly Perfect 2.30 War Lord 3.00 Dans Le Vent 3.30 Midnight Mustang 4.00 Hen (nb)
