Catterick double edges O'Neill jnr closer to maiden half-century

Jonjo O’Neill jnr finished the day 16 winners clear of Connor Brace, his nearest pursuer in the conditional jockeys’ title race, after landing the first two races at Catterick aboard Extreme Force and Carys’ Commodity for his father Jonjo.

These are exciting times for the talented rider, who is now just three winners short of recording a maiden half-century, and has the mount on 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Native River to look forward to at Newbury in the Denman Chase on Saturday week.

He has been told by Native River’s trainer Colin Tizzard that if regular partner Richard Johnson fails to recover from injury in time for Cheltenham, he will ride the ten-year-old in the Gold Cup.