With the summer flat season reaching it's halfway stage with the July Cup meeting at Newmarket this weekend, there have been many contenders for our ride of the week with the busy schedule of late.
However, our winner for WEEK SIX sees us switch back to the National Hunt sphere, which has not been receiving must of the spotlight in the off-season.
The leading jumps trainers and jockeys have been busy over the last couple of months preparing their winter horses and taking advantage of their summer ones, with plenty of summer features to contest.
For Champion Jockey Richard Johnson, there simply is no 'off-season', and he is has been very much at the top of his game riding six winners from his last fifteen possibilities over the last fortnight.
He rode a double at Worcester on Monday, and seems to provide horses a chance of winning when the odds are completely stacked against them.
Despite not getting much media attention of late with the flat dominating, Johnson certainly caught everyone's eye on Friday when he somehow maintained the partnership with John Flint's Court Duty, as the two crashed through the final fence in the 2:40 at Newton Abbot.
The seven-year-old was raised 6lb from his win at Uttoxeter in June where he won in ready fashion under Paddy Brennan, but Johnson was booked to do the steering this time, and every single bit of his experience came to the fore.
Court Duty was on his away to another strong-looking victory when he led from the fourth fence and was three lengths clear jumping the last.
He blundered really badly and almost unshipped the Champion, who was left scrambling for his reigns and irons.
That rescue and result would have been good enough for second place place-money, but the horse was not going to be denied a third career victory as Johnson revitalised his mount up the run-in.
The duo held off the late challenge of Ben Case's Templepark, who was given another chance under Max Kendrick, but could not get past and finished just a neck down on the winners.
Check out the incredible sit and ride from the 41-year-old in the light purple colours for Davies & Price below:
Take a bow @dickyjohnson77! The Champion Jockey works wonders to keep the partnership with Court Duty intact and still manage to get up to win at @NewtonAbbotRace... pic.twitter.com/0Y3fyiXpqI
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 5, 2019
Congratulations Dicky Johnson on a great effort, and we will be back next Tuesday for WEEK SEVEN.