The 22-time Cheltenham Festival winning jockey offers up his tips for the biggest week in racing and relives some of his favourite Cheltenham memories.
Richard Johnson says Constitution Hill is the horse he would want to ride at the Cheltenham Festival this week and believes Nicky Henderson’s stable star can prove himself a cut above his rivals in the Champion Hurdle.
Constitution Hill is the favourite in the Cheltenham Festival betting to reclaim his crown in the race he won in 2023 but missed last year due to injury.
In our exclusive interview, Johnson also discusses his experiences of Cheltenham as a jockey, his best bets for the week ahead and Willie Mullins’ domination of the sport.
What is Cheltenham week like for a jockey?
It’s a place where you experience every emotion going over the four days. Chris Maude, the former jockey, used to say Cheltenham is about three things – tips, tickets and disappointments. He’s right.
Unfortunately, at the end of the Festival, disappointment is probably quite high on the list when you’re walking out of the place. You do feel deflated at times. It can be the most amazing place when you’re flying high, but it can be a soulless place and a very lonely place when things haven’t gone right.
As a young jockey you always wanted initially to be involved and then to ride a winner. To start with you tend to ride 50/1 or 100/1 shots that obviously aren’t really going to be getting involved.
We all go there with hope! In your head you’ve dreamed that whatever you’re on runs the race of its life or it comes back to some form it showed four years ago. You convince yourself that they’re going to run their best ever race.
So, you sort of scratch that itch. But it gets hard to get on horses that are going to have a chance. That is the next step.
What do you remember about the biggest celebration you had from all your winners?
Probably my first ever winner there, Anzum for David Nicholson, who was 40/1 in the Stayers’ in 1999.
I thought he would be placed and always felt he would run well. But never did I believe he was going to win. It was supposed to be the big clash between Le Coudray and Lady Rebecca.
It was such a big shock. We all celebrated like mad including all the lads in the yard. We celebrated for a long time in the Plough, the pub at the bottom of the gallops.
We had an amazing evening. It was the ultimate high really because I’d never ridden a winner there. For me and my career it was huge especially as I was only 21.
And what was your worst experience?
That has to be Detroit City, who was the favourite for the Champion Hurdle in 2007. I had a whole host of rides that week for Philip Hobbs that we really fancied, probably five or six of them really strongly and none did anything.
Detroit City had won all his starts that year. You couldn’t see him not being in the shake-up. And I was beaten after the first hurdle, I knew I couldn’t win. I didn’t know why or didn’t know what, but something was wrong. I was absolutely devastated. None of us could believe how badly he’d run. Detroit City was the one that we really felt was a banker. I think he was unbeaten after winning the Triumph Hurdle the year before. He’d won everything and appeared to be a horse that was improving at every run.
We went there thinking it was our race to lose really. But after the first hurdle, I knew we were beaten. He was just lifeless.
It transpired the following season they found he had a heart problem and he died as a five-year-old.
That whole week was miserable. I remember I couldn’t wait to leave Cheltenham on the Friday night and get home. I just had a depressing week that started with so much hope. That was a long four days for me.
Any other memories?
In 1997 when Mr Mulligan won the Gold Cup, I obviously rode him the year before for Noel Chance whose daughter Fiona I went on to marry in 2007. I couldn’t ride him at the start of that season and the owner had said whoever rides him at the start of the season is going to keep the ride. Unfortunately, I couldn’t, David Nicholson wanted me to ride some other horses when he first ran and I couldn’t commit to that.
I remember watching him win the Gold Cup in 1997 and there was a bit of me thinking this was my big chance to get on the big stage and I’d missed it. I was only obviously very young but I almost felt like I’d missed that opportunity and there was a real worry for me that I’m never going to get another opportunity to ride. When you’ve had a few days that have gone completely wrong you literally feel like your career is over.
But three years later I rode Looks Like Trouble for him, and we won. There’s a lot of swings and roundabouts and you never quite know what’s around the corner.
Do you have any concerns about the Festival?
Firstly, when I started riding there were full fields in every race, whether it was the Supreme, the Triumph Hurdle, the Bumper, the Champion Chase, and probably the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup.
Everybody wanted to be there if they had a horse good enough to be involved. Now for example the Fred Winter is a race that I think does take away from the Triumph.
The last few years we’ve had a small field in the Triumph and the hustle and bustle of the race was half the excitement. You needed a horse that could cope with the whole thing, lots of runners, jumping at speed, the atmosphere, everything, and the talent obviously to do the job.
It’s a shame that we haven’t got more runners in some of the races.
What are your hot fancies for this year?
Kopek des Bordes in the Supreme is the one they are all looking to avoid. He was obviously very impressive at the Dublin Racing Festival. But I was also told he is a horse that gets very excited. So, if he doesn’t cope with all the preliminaries and everything else, all of a sudden, the race could be wide open. He probably will win. It’s a shame that as soon as people see a good horse, they try to avoid it. Cheltenham should be the place where the best takes on the best.
Ballyburn is a very solid favourite in the three-mile Novice Chase. He’s not at odds on, which I’m quite surprised about. He’ll be very hard to beat.
Constitution Hill is the horse I’d want to ride. I’d like to see him almost cement himself as a very superior champion hurdler compared to anything else at the moment. He deserves to be. He’s unbeaten. I’ve seen a lot of horses and a lot of very good ones, but he takes my breath away really.
The New Lion might well go off favourite in the end [in the Turners]. Everyone says that because he won the Challow Hurdle he can’t win at Cheltenham, because the Challow has got such a bad record. But I think he’s definitely the best novice that we’ve got over here.
Il Est Francais didn’t get the credit in the King George because he didn’t quite get home. He went very quick on Boxing Day and if you look at the speed he was going, it was incredible. I was half thinking he might go for the Champion Chase, just because he showed so much speed. The Ryanair looks the obvious choice with the drying ground.
There’s Protektorat also in the Ryanair who looks the most talented horse of all of them. Protektorat is a very, very good horse. But Il Est Francais is the one I would want to be with.
Lulamba from Nicky Henderson’s yard is a good thing for the Triumph Hurdle. He was very impressive at Ascot. Nicky is very good with his juvenile hurdlers. This horse has only run twice, but he’s just looked very professional. For me, he’s a very interesting one.
Lulamba could be the next Sir Gino or Constitution Hill type. They hold him in very high regard. He’s hopefully got the talent to produce himself and got more in him than just the Triumph Hurdle.
A lot of Triumph Hurdle horses really struggle once they’ve won the Triumph and get a high rating. It’s hard for them to go on but I think this horse looks like he will do.
What do you think of Sir Alex Ferguson’s impact on racing?
I’ve met him a couple of times. I think he’s brilliant. We all know him from football, especially in the 90s and 2000s. He was always in the headlines. He was almost as much of star as his players. His love for racing comes across really well. It’s great for our sport to have people like that.
He’s got good Flat horses as well, but he loves the jumping. It’s a bit like a football team where you can have lots of things go wrong and right. You see him here, there and everywhere.
He’s part of a group that included the late John Hales who the last time I saw was when Protektorat won at Windsor. That was a very emotional day for him. It would be great for him to run well again in memory of John.
Sir Alex, Ged Mason and Fred Done between them have a consortium of horses they all have a quarter share in. They have got a huge amount of jumpers now, which is great.
They have really got behind jump racing and the fun they have out of it.
What are your Cheltenham value tips?
Joseph O’Brien is a very shrewd operator and I’ve been told he’s bringing over about 10 or 15 horses – and they are not coming over for the ride.
In the two-and-a-half-mile Novice Handicap Chase on the Thursday, he runs Nürburgring. He was rated 150. It’s been a plan to get him here in this handicap. He’s rated 140, he jumps well, he’s very uncomplicated. He’s got a massive chance in that Novice Handicap.
In the Fred Winter, he’s got three horses. Naturally Nimble ran in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown. He ran eye-catchingly well. He’s high up in the weights, but that’s one they really fancy.
Also, Beyond Your Dreams for JP McManus is also trained by him. Whatever Joseph O’Brien runs in the Fred Winter is definitely worth being on the right side of.
Be Aware for Dan Skelton in the Coral Hurdle. It’s been running over two miles and it definitely looks to me like he wants two and a half miles. But they probably kept him until this to actually step him up in trip. He’s been running really well. He’s definitely a horse that I’m sure we haven’t seen the best of.
Skelton is definitely good at pinpointing one or two horses for these valuable handicaps. He looks for horses that he feels that these races will suit.
Nicky Henderson has told me he has never had Mister Coffey so well. He thinks he’s got a massive chance in the Cross Country race. Your one negative is that he is an 11-year-old maiden chaser. Nicky feels that for whatever reason he’s just really come into himself.
Being a handicap this year, the Cross Country is going to be a much wider wide-open affair. I know Gordon Elliott hasn’t agreed with it becoming a handicap because he used to use it as a prep run for the Grand National. Now some of his horses are having to give lumps away to other horses in the race.
Finally in the Gold Cup, Corbett’s Cross. I don’t think he’s going to beat Galopin des Champs but he won the National Hunt Chase last year. He’ll stay really well. I don’t think there’s going to be many runners in the Gold Cup because a lot of them are trying to avoid the favourite. Emmet Mullins is a very shrewd man. He’s run him over all sorts of trips this year, which I’m slightly surprised about. I think he could definitely finish second in the Gold Cup.
Willie Mullins ‘bingo’ – do you think yards should be made to outline their intentions for horses a lot earlier?
A lot of betting companies now will do No Runner No Bet, and that is helpful. I know for people that can be frustrating. But at the same time, the weather is one of those weird things you don’t know what it is going to do.
You want the right horses to run the right races so I think it is probably the right thing to do to leave horses in multiple races.
That doesn’t make it very easy for a punter, but in a weird way I think it can give you a bit more value.
What’s the worst thing about the Festival from your perspective?
Last year Cheltenham seemed to lose a little bit of atmosphere. There were obviously a few people that were upset about different things. Cheltenham have taken on board some of the criticism. It’s a huge sporting event that takes an awful lot of organising and it’s not a cheap thing to attend. So affordability was one issue.
Another thing is that people in the less expensive areas felt that they weren’t getting looked after properly. If people think that they’d be looked after better, that they will have a better day, but also then that will help the atmosphere of the meeting.
We want to show the world that this is one of the best sporting events of the year, which I feel it is, but we need that to filter out into the wider world. I’m hoping that people feel that when they get there this year, they feel appreciated.
What’s the best thing about Cheltenham?
Having the stars of the sport there. Willie Mullins has got an army of horses coming over. But I think to have Constitution Hill, Jonbon, those British stars that are going to have a better feel to it because we want something to shout about.
Is the Irish dominance, and Willie Mullins in particular, a bit of a turn-off do you think?
Paul Nicholls, Dan Skelton and Nicky Henderson are as good as Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell. But Willie Mullins stands above everyone.
Looking through all the entries, he’s got double figure entries in a lot of races. I take my hat off to him, and he’s worked really hard to get that team all together.
But from an outsider’s perspective if he’s got four in the Supreme and there’s only 10 runners, you’re thinking, ‘Well that’s a bit odd.’ And then at the end of day, if he’s had four winners out of six or seven races, it looks a bit one-sided.
I don’t know what you can do about it. You can’t restrict him and it is the best of the best, but it doesn’t look great.
What’s the consequence of that?
The racing is still going to be very competitive but if Willie Mullins has four horses in the first, if they were all trained by four different people, it would have a better look to it.
At the Dublin Racing Festival, which is a brilliant meeting, you sort of felt like Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead were almost like saying, ‘We’ll wait until Cheltenham.’
DRF was almost for Mullins’ benefit. They were just literally Grade 1 after Grade 1.
That isn’t good for our sport. It’s not his fault because you’ve got to take your hat off to him for getting where he has got.
Dan Skelton, he’s probably the one trainer over here that is pushing the boundaries. He’s working very hard to try and get the best horses in all of the time. He’s a young man that’s really determined. Of all the British trainers at the moment, he’s the one that I think is the one that’s probably on the upward curve.
We need people when they think about having a horse not to think of Willie Mullins, they need to think of Dan Skelton or Paul Nicholls. Especially the English owners.
It is disappointing when you see some of the Irish horses that are coming over are owned by Brits.
The trainers in Britain are definitely just as good as the Irish. It’s just fashion now. But people like being with winners and obviously if Willie Mullins has another 10 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, he’s the one getting all the headlines. So, he’s the one in the best position to attract a new owner coming into the sport.
If you were in charge of the festival, what change might you make?
I definitely would get rid of the Fred Winter. I think it would make the Triumph Hurdle a lot more competitive. We’ve got to make things as competitive as possible.
Is Cheltenham too omnipresent?
I don’t think it can be too big. We’ve got to make the most of our big events. Aintree has done really well to upgrade the Grand National meeting to a much higher level than it was 20, 30 years ago. It’s now three days of very good racing.
We shouldn’t take away from Cheltenham. It does draw people from all over the world.
It’s not quite make or break, but is it important that the Festival puts on a good show this year?
I think it’s important for all racecourses, not just Cheltenham, that people feel appreciated for going and feel that the race courses have put good facilities in, so you can enjoy your day, whether you’re going with a bunch of mates on a boozy afternoon or whether you’re taking a family. I think it’s important that everyone feels appreciated.
Who was your biggest rival at Cheltenham and who did you respect most?
AP [McCoy] was always my rival from the first day I ever got to the racecourse. Charlie Swan was probably the first jockey where I remember thinking he rode Cheltenham in a different way to other people.
He was definitely a real thinking man’s jockey. I used to remember thinking, why is he so far back? He’d be in different places on different horses. A lot of trainers would give you the same instructions on the majority of their horses, whereas he was always in a different place but again he was always in the right place at the right time.
Ruby [Walsh] got to ride some amazing horses but he also knew where t