Richard Johnson OBE was Champion Conditional Jockey in 1995/96 at the age of 18. However, despite riding over a hundred winners in every National Hunt season since, for a long time Johnson seemed destined to be dubbed, eternally, as ‘the best jockey never to be champion’. Thankfully, though, in recent years Johnson has emerged from the shadow of Sir Anthony McCoy to become Champion Jockey three seasons running in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18.
At the Cheltenham Festival, Johnson has ridden a total of 23 winners, placing him fourth in the all-time list of leading jockeys, behind Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty, McCoy and Pat Taafe. His first winner came courtesy of Anzum, trained by David Nicholson, in the Stayers’ Hurdle in 1999. Despite starting at odds of 40/1, Anzum produced a strong run from the final flight to collar the favourite, Le Coudray, in the final strides and win by a neck.
The following year, Johnson rode his second Festival winner, Dark Stranger, trained by Martin Pipe, in the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup and, 24 hours later, recorded his first ‘championship’ race success on Looks Like Trouble, trained by Noel Chance – who would later become his father-in-law – in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Johnson drew a blank at the Festival in 2001, but was back in the winners’ enclosure twice in 2002, courtesy of Flagship Uberalles in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Rooster Booster in the Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle, both trained by Philip Hobbs. In fact, those two winners were enough to win Johnson the leading jockey award for the one and only time.
Further success followed, though, with the victory of Rooster Booster in the Champion Hurdle in 2003 making Johnson, along with Ruby Walsh and Barry Geraghty, one of just three active jockeys to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle. In recent years, Johnson has added to his Cheltenham tally by winning the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle on Flying Tiger, trained by Nick Williams, and the Triumph Hurdle on Defi Du Seuil, trained by Hobbs, in 2017 and, of course, the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Native River, trained by Colin Tizzard, in 2018.