Richard Johnson: the role-model rider with a near-pathological desire to win

In his classic poem If, Rudyard Kipling’s narrator lays down to his son the principles by which a man should aim to live his life.

The son is told to keep a level head, not to doubt himself, to dream, work, strive and endeavour while not swaying from his grounding, changing his character or forgetting the common touch. This, the narrator concludes, is the true measure of a man.

In racing, it is rare to come across a figure who unites people in their views quite the way Richard Johnson does, but his personality and virtues are universally agreed upon by all that know him: he is utterly dedicated, he is unfailingly genuine and he has not changed one iota since the day they first met him. If Kipling wanted the embodiment of his poem’s principles, then he could do a lot worse than Johnson.