Richard Johnson: 'I’m not saying I can still beat Brian Hughes but . . .'

By the end of the session Richard Johnson is reduced to a state of fatigue the like of which you have never previously seen in him. There is an accompanying scrambling of his senses as he sways like a tree in the eye of Storm Dennis, which has made impromptu lakes of the lanes around his Herefordshire home.

The champion jockey is now in full recuperation mode from the arm he broke in a fall at Exeter five weeks ago. Or at least, he will be once he catches his breath. He has just spent an hour being drilled by Kate Davis, the physiotherapist he credits with extending his career in the saddle, and who is coordinating a fitness programme that will return Johnson to the fray in good time for the Cheltenham Festival.

It looks innocuous enough at first. Davis puts the champion jockey through a series of exercises to loosen up his troublesome right hip. The she works on doing the same to the muscles in his lower back and pelvis. This later extends to his lower legs before he starts rolling around on an assortment of core-balance gym balls.