'Riding winners there is what you dream of doing,' says the National Hunt jockey and Betway ambassador in his exclusive column
Listen to Richard Johnson discuss his big hope for this year’s Cheltenham Festival on the Betway Insider Podcast
The Festival
Cheltenham is what we all build up to throughout the year.
It’s a party for a lot of people who go, but obviously for us it’s work and being there and riding winners is what you dream of doing.
It has been a few years since I won the four Championship races and I perhaps didn’t appreciate them at the time.
My first ever winner there was Anzum in the Stayers’ Hurdle in 1999 and that was amazing. Then within the next five years I rode winners in the Gold Cup, Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle.
I’ve obviously tried for 15 years to win them again and haven’t managed it. But it’s great to have that history and say I’ve won those races.
Winning the Gold Cup in 2000 on Looks Like Trouble was fantastic, and it was a spare ride I only picked up three weeks before the race.
I perhaps didn’t appreciate it as much as I should’ve at the time.
Favourite horse?
They were all special horses. If there’s any race I can win again, it’d be the Gold Cup.
For me it’s the pinnacle of Cheltenham week and is what every owner, trainer and jockey dreams of winning.
So Looks Like Trouble would definitely be up there.
Slightly sentimentally, he lives with us at home. He is 25 now and still out in the fields. So obviously I’m very attached to him.
Rooster Booster [in 2003] was unbelievable – a real warrior. You never left a race feeling he hadn’t done his best.
He gave everything every time. The day he won the Champion Hurdle he was almost running away with me coming down the hill.
That was his real day in the sun where he really shone and I can’t ever imagine riding an easier winner at the Cheltenham Festival.
Richard Johnson appeared on episode two of the Betway Insider Podcast
The roar
Cheltenham is definitely the biggest atmosphere and even when the crowd aren’t roaring, you can feel the buzz. It’s great to be a part of.
When you’re in the race, you’re focused on yourself. It’s ecstasy when you pass the winning line in front, but even when you don’t win a massive wave of noise hits you.
For a jockey, riding a winner is the best feeling in the world and to do it at Cheltenham is the pinnacle of what we try and do on a daily basis.
Cheltenham memories
Riding Menorah in the 2010 Supreme Novice Hurdle was an amazing day.
There’s no better feeling than starting the week by winning the first race. It takes the pressure off. I was also able to beat AP [McCoy], which was obviously fantastic.
So was Cheltenian in the Champion Bumper the year after.
He’d only been bought in Ireland two or three months prior to that. He’d won a race in Ireland and we’d won one at Kempton. We really liked him and weren’t surprised he was a major player, but he was a fairly big price.
There is always a chance of getting a big price winner at Cheltenham because they’re all very good horses – sometimes it’s just the fact that maybe they’re not trained by an in-fashion trainer or ridden by one of the main jockeys.
The big hope for next week?
It’s a close-run thing, but Balthazar King. He’s obviously a bit of a hero from years gone by and he’s won the Cross Country Chase twice before.
He’s the perfect racehorse – he loves life and just gets on with it.
He’s a great horse to have and is a big favourite in the Hobbs yard, so it’ll be amazing if he can go there and do it.
I’d be very disappointed if he wasn’t in the first three or four – he’s got the best form.
He’s got a great chance.
READ: Richard Johnson: Copper Kay is one of the best mares I’ve ever ridden
WATCH: The Cheltenham Preview with Davy Russell and Champion Jockey-elect Richard Johnson
