George Ennor Trophy

It was a low-key place for an era to end: Newton Abbot at teatime on Easter Saturday.

The fourth of the quartet of jockeys who had dominated jumps racing in Britain since the turn of the century had ridden in a competitive race for the last time. The tributes from both his fellow professionals and from members of the media soon flooded in, universally generous in praise of Richard both as a jockey and as a man. For besides being an outstanding rider, Richard was always a pleasure to deal with, free with his time and ever prepared to engage with a question. Had the cards fallen right, he might have exited on a bigger stage, at the Cheltenham Festival the previous month, for example; that he chose to go at Newton Abbot a week before the Grand National says much about the man. His desire to exit quietly and to not steal the limelight from the winner of a famous race was typical of the way he has conducted himself throughout. Johnson won the jockeys championship four times, a number kept undeservedly low by being a contemporary of Sir Anthony McCoy. He rode more than 3,800 winners in a career that spanned 27 years - a total surpassed only by ‘AP’ himself - and 23 of those wins came at the Cheltenham Festival. He won all of the four principal races there, taking the Champion Hurdle on Rooster Booster, the Champion Chase on Flagship Uberalles, the Stayers’ Hurdle on Anzum and the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice, on Looks Like Trouble and Native River. His victories on Anzum, near the start of his career, and on Native River, in the latter stages of it, came under rides that were classics of his style. Anzum was under pressure from early on the final circuit and prevailed almost at the last gasp. Native River, given a take-no-prisoners ride from the front in a prolonged duel with Might Bite, finally broke his rival only starting up the run-in. The ride on Native River was perhaps the best of his career.

Richard started in racing with David Nicholson while still at school and rode notable winners for him, the tough and game Viking Flagship, as well as Anzum, among those to recall. Early on, he rode Grade 1 winners for both Willie Mullins (Florida Pearl) and Nicky Henderson (Landing Light) and he rode his first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Looks Like Trouble for Noel Chance, his future father-in-law. But it is with the Philip Hobbs yard which he is most closely associated. For twenty years the pair were linked on the racecard, and the mutual respect they have for one another, both professionally and personally, was apparent in the warm tributes they paid to one another on Richard’s retirement.

The pair won a Champion Hurdle with Rooster Booster, but many of their best horses were primarily chasers, including Flagship Uberalles, What’s Up Boys, Menorah, Captain Chris, Balthazar King and Monkerhostin. Richard belongs to that group of outstanding jockeys, including John Francome and Jonjo O’Neill, never to have ridden the winner of the Grand National, though he was runner-up on both What’s Up Boys and Balthazar King. It’s perhaps a shame Richard never got the chance to ride Native River in the National, as the horse was the perfect foil for him. He rode Native River for the first time when winning the Mildmay Novices’ at Aintree in 2015/16. The following season they won the Hennessy and the Welsh National, but came up short in the Gold Cup, finishing third. That was put right a year later. Richard’s final ride came on Brother Tedd, who finished third in a handicap chase. By an almost implausible coincidence, Brother Tedd was the horse he had ridden to win the final race of AP’s career, at Sandown in 2015.

Afterwards, Richard described himself as ‘extraordinarily lucky’ in the career that he’d had. I think you’ll agree that we were the lucky ones, witnessing at close quarters the career of one of jumping’s greatest jockeys.