'It can't last forever' - Richard Johnson looks to the future
Jonathan Harding speaks to the four-time champion jockey
Richard Johnson has been schooling at Henry Daly's Downton Hall Stables every Tuesday during the season for more than 20 years. He began riding here as a teenager for Captain Tim Forster and, after the trainer handed over the reins in 1998, Johnson kept coming. He must have enjoyed the routine as Daly never had to ask him back.
"You'd get less for murder," says the four-time champion jockey as he walks over to his first ride of the morning with a slight hobble, jokingly putting it down to the wear and tear of his profession.
Johnson looks far more comfortable on the back of a horse than he does walking and, even at 43, it is clear from his broad smile there is nowhere in the world he would rather be. Certainly not when there is a jockeys' championship to win back.
Read the full story
Read award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing, with exclusive news, interviews, columns, investigations, stable tours and subscriber-only emails.
Subscribe to unlock
- Racing Post digital newspaper (worth over £100 per month)
- Award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing
- Expert tips from the likes of Tom Segal and Paul Kealy
- Replays and results analysis from all UK and Irish racecourses
- Form study tools including the Pro Card and Horse Tracker
- Extensive archive of statistics covering horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, pedigree and sales data
Already a subscriber?Log in
Published on 31 October 2020inInterviews
Last updated 13:13, 24 November 2020
Copy- 'All of us who ply our trade training horses are dreamers - to put so much into it you must have a dream'
- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'
- Richard Hannon: 'When you're dead and buried the only things you're remembered by are your Classic winners'
- Paul Carberry: 'I jumped up on to the rafters. It tended to be all very strait-laced in those days, but I changed that'
- 'All of us who ply our trade training horses are dreamers - to put so much into it you must have a dream'
- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'
- Richard Hannon: 'When you're dead and buried the only things you're remembered by are your Classic winners'
- Paul Carberry: 'I jumped up on to the rafters. It tended to be all very strait-laced in those days, but I changed that'