Richard Johnson OBE: five highlights in a champion's outstanding career

Richard Johnson's OBE recognises more than 20 years of continued success in jumps racing, but to fans he is more than that.

In the saddle, Johnson is a byword for positivity and indefatigability, giving each and every ride the best possible chance to shine.

That quality runs through his career like the text through a stick of rock – from Gloria Victis in the Racing Post Chase almost two decades ago to Atlanta Ablaze at Warwick the other week. In between, it has carried him to some of jumping's greatest heights

1999 Stayers' Hurdle – Anzum

More than a year before Betfair came into existence there was the quintessential 999-1 winner. Channel 4 commentator Simon Holt ventured to say Anzum was being "driven for dear life" at the top of the hill, but he had been off the bridle for perhaps half a mile before that.

Johnson persevered. Two out he was still just about in touch. Approaching the last he was making a late bid for an unlikely place. Halfway up the run-in, the impending drama dawned on Graham Goode, now behind the microphone: "From the clouds, here comes Anzum with a devastating run!"

2000 Cheltenham Gold Cup – Looks Like Trouble

Looks Like Trouble was perhaps not the best horse in the 2000 Gold Cup, but in a race where they were visibly slugging it out from the sixth-last fence he proved the toughest.

Johnson's crucial move in this race was expending the energy necessary to keep his mount close enough, so that he could use the hill to his advantage against Florida Pearl and the ill-fated Gloria Victis. Two excellent jumps in the straight gave Looks Like Trouble the initiative to power to a five-length victory for Johnson and his now father-in-law, Noel Chance.

2003 Champion Hurdle – Rooster Booster

Johnson might be best remembered for fashioning pearls from grit, but his finest hour of all was a steering job. At his very best, Rooster Booster would have given any of the great two-mile hurdlers a race around Cheltenham and, after a year of progress from winning the County Hurdle, he showed it with an 11-length success.

That winning margin is, barring Istabraq's 12-length win in 1998, the widest in a generation. It also completed the set of what are now the championship races for Johnson, who had won the Champion Chase on Flagship Uberalles in 2002.

2011 Arkle – Captain Chris

Captain Chris was not quite yet dependent on going right-handed or over longer distances, but he was showing signs of both and it took all of Johnson's patient forcefulness to keep him in contention.

He presented his mount to lead after the last and, with a little lean to the right for good measure, the pair kept on strongly up the hill. The true extent of the feat was only known 12 months later, when runner-up Finian's Rainbow beat Sizing Europe to win the Champion Chase.

Captain Chris (near) battles it out with Finian's Rainbow in the 2011 ArkleCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

2018 Gold Cup – Native River

It would have been as easy to go too slowly on Native River, who has Welsh National levels of stamina, as it would have been to go too fast on unusually testing ground for a Gold Cup.

By the last ditch Native River had burned off all but his major mark, the speedier Might Bite. Only approaching the last did the mastery of Johnson's pacing reveal itself, as Nico de Boinville asked Might Bite for everything but found it to be one gasp too far.

On top of that, just out of shot Anibale Fly led the closers up the hill, strongly suggesting that the leaders could not have maintained the gallop for a furlong more. Johnson had achieved front-running perfection in the biggest race of all.

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