Born on July 21st 1977 in Hereford,
Richard Johnson is an English jockey who rides on the National Hunt
circuit and who very much has racing in his family, as the son of
successful trainer, Sue Johnson and a father who spent many years as
an amateur jockey.
Great Start
By the age of 18, in 1996, Johnson had
claimed the title of Champion ‘Conditional’ Jockey, which refers
to a rule by which a jockey with less than 20 winners to his or her
name can claim extra weight. His first ‘under rules’ National
Hunt winner was in 1994 on Rusty Bridge at Hereford Racecourse.
Cheltenham Festival
Over the last 20 years, Richard Johnson
has enjoyed great success at Cheltenham winning numerous major races
there, something that led to him being named the top jockey at the
2002 festival. He is one of just 3 jockeys to have won all 4 of the
champion races at Cheltenham and has won there as recently as 2018,
when claimed the prestigious Gold Cup on the Colin Tizzard horse,
Native River.
There is still much to come from
Richard Johnson, with the jockey already having passed 3,000 winners
in Britain already. He still harbours hopes of winning the Grand
National, something that he has not managed in 20 attempts to date,
which at time of writing, is the joint highest number of races
competed in and unfortunately for him, the most races competed in
without a winner. He came close twice, coming second on Whatsupboys
in 2002 and Balthazar King in 2014, but has yet to cross the line
first.
Luckily for him, he still has lots and
lots of time to put the record straight, and with a winning record
like his, you’d be foolish to bet against him doing so.