Category: Jockeys

Which horse was Richard Johnson’s first Cheltenham Festival winner?

At the time of his shock retirement, on April 3, 2021, Richard Johnson had ridden 3,819 winners, making him the second most prolific National Hunt jockey in history, behind only his old friend and rival, Tony McCoy. Johnson won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship four years running between 2016 and 2019, but not until McCoy – who was perennial Champion Jockey for the preceding two decades – retired at the end of the 2014/15 season.

Johnson rode his first winner of any description, Rusty Bridge, trained by his mother Susan, in the Next Generation Hunters’ Chase at Hereford on April 30, 1994, as a 16-year-old amateur. At the insistence of his mentor, the late David Nicholson, who was, at the time, based at Jackdaws Castle, Gloucestershire, he retained his amateur status until the following November, when he turned professional.

Johnson was Champion Conditional Jockey in 1995/1996 but, as far as the Cheltenham Festival is concerned, did not ride his first winner until 1999. Fittingly, that winner was Anzum, saddled by Nicholson, in his final season as a trainer, in the Stayers’ Hurdle on March 18, 1999. Johnson had ridden the same horse into second place in the same race two years earlier.

Johnson would go on to ride 22 Cheltenham Festival winners in total, including Looks Like Trouble and Native River in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2000 and 2018, respectively. At the time of his retirement, Johnson expressed his gratitude to Nicholson, saying, ‘Without ‘The Duke’ [Nicholson] and [his wife] Dinah Nicholson and their remarkable staff, I’d never have got that first leg up.’

Was Richard Fahey once a jockey?

Nowadays, Richard Fahey is a highly successful trainer based at Musley Bank, near Malton, North Yorkshire. Fahey turned his hand to training, at nearby Butterworth, in 1993, but in his earlier years enjoyed a moderately successful career as conditional jockey to the late Jimmy Fitzgerald at Norton Grange Stables, also in Malton. Indeed, on June 3, 1989, he rode Wisconsin, trained by Michael Chapman, to victory in the final race of the 1988/1989 season, the Dove House Hospice Mares Only Novices’ Hurdle at Market Rasen, to secure a share of the conditional jockeys’ title with Derek Byrne and Stuart Turner.

Fahey continued to ride winners after losing his claim, but the last of them was Gymcrak Gamble, trained by Peter Easterby – whose daughter, Leila, he had married three years earlier – on May 20, 1992. Reflecting on his riding career, Fahey said, ‘I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t enjoying it and couldn’t see a future in it, so I gave it up before it gave me up.’

Fahey began his training career modestly enough, saddling just ten winners in his first three seasons and not breaking into double figures for a season until 1996. Thereafter, his record was one of steady improvement, season-by-season. He saddled 50 winners in a season for the first time in 2003 and 100 winners in a season for the first time in 2008. He enjoyed his most successful season ever, numerically and financially, in 2017, with 235 winners and £3.85 million in total prize money.

 

Has Robert Havlin ridden a Group 1 winner for John Gosden?

The short answer is no, he hasn’t. In fact, Robert ‘Rab’ Havlin has never ridden a Group 1 winner, not for John Gosden – who, since early 2021, has held a joint licence with his son, Thady – or any other trainer. That said, at the last count, Havlin had ridden a total of 583 winners for Gosden, including 45 for the recently established partnership in 2021. Those victories include 18 at Pattern Race level, the most recent of which was Megallan in the Group 3 Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury in August, 2021.

Havlin, 47, is into the veteran stage of his career, but was stable apprentice at Manton Park, Wiltshire when Gosden succeeded Peter Chapple-Hyam as private trainer to Robert Sangster in late 1999. In the interim, he has developed into a highly accomplished horseman and remains a pivotal member of the Gosdens’ staff at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket. The Scotsman rode his one and only Royal Ascot winner, Ardad, in the Windsor Castle Stakes in June, 2016. Fittingly, he reached the career landmark of 1,000 winners on another Gosden-trained horse, Pitcher’s Point, at Lingfield in March, 2020.

At that point, Havlin paid tribute to Gosden, saying, ‘The second half of my career has been a lot better than the first! I’ve got John Gosden to thank for that, he’s been an unbelievable friend and supporter for a long time and it’s down to him.’

 

Was Fergal O’Brien once a jockey?

Nowadays, Fergal O’Brien is a dual-purpose trainer based at Ravenshall Farm in Withington, Gloucester, approximately ten miles from Cheltenham Racecourse. Indeed, O’Brien enjoyed his most successful season so far in 2020/21, saddling 104 National Hunt winners – only Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson saddled more – and amassing over £796,000 in prize money to finish seventh in the trainers’ championship. In fact, at the time of writing, O’Brien already heads the 2021/22 trainers’ championship table, with 51 winners and nearly £350,000 in prize money and has recently joined forces with fellow Gloucestershire trainer Graeme McPherson to create O’Brien McPherson Racing.

Born in Limerick in 1972, into a family with no involvement in horse racing, O’Brien nonetheless harboured the ambition of becoming a jockey. As a teenager, he followed his older brother Brian across the Irish Sea to the yard of Doug Francis, elder brother of Dick Francis, in Malpas, Cheshire. In early 1989, O’Brien completed a nine-week course at the British Racing School and subsequently joined Tim Forster in Letcombe Bassett, near Lambourn, with whom he would spend the next three and a half years. Having discovered that his ambition outweighed his talent, as far a race riding was concerned, O’Brien joined up-and-coming trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies in Naunton, Gloucester, where he remained for the best part of two decades before embarking on his own training career.

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