'It can't last forever' - Richard Johnson looks to the future
Jonathan Harding speaks to the four-time champion jockey
Richard Johnson has been schooling at Henry Daly's Downton Hall Stables every Tuesday during the season for more than 20 years. He began riding here as a teenager for Captain Tim Forster and, after the trainer handed over the reins in 1998, Johnson kept coming. He must have enjoyed the routine as Daly never had to ask him back.
"You'd get less for murder," says the four-time champion jockey as he walks over to his first ride of the morning with a slight hobble, jokingly putting it down to the wear and tear of his profession.
Johnson looks far more comfortable on the back of a horse than he does walking and, even at 43, it is clear from his broad smile there is nowhere in the world he would rather be. Certainly not when there is a jockeys' championship to win back.
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