Former National Hunt jockey Richard Johnson has run the rule over next week’s Cheltenham Festival, including the news that Constitution Hill will be missing the event. He has also given the lowdown on how Willie Mullins will be feeling about Monday’s news and how Cheltenham needs to open its doors to younger people with children being charged at a full adult price this year.
“It needs to be a family event, if you look at football or rugby, you often see whole families going, not just one generation. So, I think that if you can get everybody to come, then that will filter down and everyone enjoys it.
“Cheltenham is an expensive day out, you’re there all day and you can go racing every day of the week for a lot less.
“You’ve just got to try and make it accessible for a lot of people, it doesn’t matter if you’re barely walking or barely able to walk, you should try and get as many people there as possible.”
“If you’re due to ride them, you’re absolutely gutted, the last year (2021) I was riding Thyme Hill, who was one of the favourites for the Stayers’ Hurdle, he wasn’t quite right.
“It was nothing major, but he wasn’t quite right and he got taken out four days before the race and I was absolutely gutted. Obviously I already knew that was going to be my last Cheltenham Festival, so he was my big chance for a winner.
“Then I retired, and got to watch him a week after that winning at Aintree! Everyone’s gutted in these situations, the owners, the trainers and the staff in the yards. These horses mean a huge amount to everybody.
“On the flip-side I’m sure Paul Townend is not gutted to see that Constitution Hill isn’t running (in the Champion Hurdle).
“However, he’s not wishing for it to go wrong, even though it’s going to be a huge plus for whatever Willie (Mullins) wants to run in that race, however many he’s going to run. I think that there’s a strong possibility that a Mare could run in the Champion Hurdle now.
“You want to see the best horses run at Cheltenham, and the best racing.”
“As a jockey, you can only ride as much as you can. I think most jockeys on the racecourse now are good at doing interviews with the press, or going out to do presentations.
“Obviously, all jockeys want to try to get as many rides as possible, so you want to be as public as you can - but I’m sure there’s some who will quite happily go on I’m A Celebrity. It might not be the best ones, more those who want to have a good time!
“If they offered - I’d do it! It wouldn’t take that much! It would be two weeks off from looking after the horses at home!”
“I think that there’s probably quite a lot of English people who want to go (to Dublin Racing Festival) for the jolly. But there’s literally boat loads of Irish people who come over for the four days of Cheltenham.
“Most of the Irish people come over on a Monday, they go to Stratford or Taunton and are here all week in England. This is their week’s holiday, instead of going away in the summer, this is more important for them.
“They save up all year for betting, whatever money they come with, if they win or lose betting, they will spend every penny they have.
“I think, for the English going over there, it’s something different - but for the Irish, there’s no way in the world they won’t come to Cheltenham.”
“For Willie Mullins, Cheltenham, for me, looks like his most important four days of the season. There’s lots of racing and he’s got loads of amazing horses, but he throws everything at Cheltenham.
“In all of the races, he’s got every one of his best horses entered.”
“At the moment, the Irish have got the best horses. They’re sourcing them and at the moment they appear to have the financial power to buy them as well.
“To see an owner like Rich Ricci with Willie (Mullins), I’m sure Willie can buy these horses because he’s got a number of very good horses running at the moment.
“I think that there’s only a small bracket (of owners) who can keep buying those expensive horses. Willie, Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead are all brilliant, they also have some which cost a lot of money who aren’t that great.
“It’s a bit of guesswork when you go to the sales to buy them - they may look amazing, but sometimes they might not be as quick as you hope they are.
"At the moment the Irish have got the cream of the crop. At the moment, we’ve got some very good horses in Britain, but they’ve definitely got the bigger share of them and we’ve got to improve to try and get some better ones.”
“It’s not an easy route to go down to decide you want to be a trainer, financially it’s a very brave thing to do.
“There’s an awful lot of young trainers out there, but Harry Derham is up there. He only trained his first winner on Boxing Day 2022, so in just over 12 months he’s come a hugely long way, so he’s one of the future stars.”
“You need a bit of luck - I didn’t realise that when I first started riding. I thought that the fitter you got them, the more races they’d win. But now as I’m a bit older I realise that if the horse isn’t healthy, it doesn't matter how good they are they won’t win.”
