Richard Johnson

[Hurdygurdyman]

We often come across race when a jockey drops his hands near the finish of the race, loses 2nd or 3rd place and end up with a hefty ban.

I wasn’t around yesterday, didn’t have a bet, so I was just catching up on some video watching.

I can’t believe what I just saw.

Richard Johnson, was riding Artic Ben in the 1.50 at Towester. This you have got to see.

Artic Ben, leading before the home turn, had been hanging left which allowed 2 challengers to get up his inside on the turning for home. Although bustled back to 4th place he was still very much in contention showing no signs of distress and you could have covered the 4 with a blanket.

Then for some reason best known to himself Johnson just gave up completely and even looked round to see where the 5th horse was as if he was going to pull up.

You could visually see even without any assistance he was still travelling as well as the 2nd and 3rd and lo and behold the penny drops and he then flies home after the last, just failing to snatch 2nd.

Forecast punters must have been tearing their hair out and screaming all sort of abuse at him.

Nothing untoward just a bad decision that should not gone unpunished.

I swear, the stewarding in this country gets worse by the minute and something must be done to improve standards.

"Richard Johnson, the rider of ARCTIC BEN (IRE) placed third, reported that the gelding hung left throughout. The Stewards ordered ARCTIC BEN (IRE) to be routine tested"

A half blind monkey could see he was hanging left. so what?. Is that now an excuse for a jockey to spit out the dummy because that’s exactly what Johnson did, IMO of course.

If that’s the best they can do when a jockey is blatantly in breach of the rule, " ridden to obtain the best possible place" Maybe they should have tested themselves instead of the horse

Please watch this race and give me your views

[Eclipse First]

Once I had turned off the pop-up Towcester blocker I watched the race.

The horse looked a real handful, he never settled in the early stages and then the jockey decided to let him do his own thing. Ran and jumped ok when he wanted, but very much ran in snatches. On the replay you cant actually see the 2nd and 3rd on the run-in so hard to say whether he got serious. On what I saw he looked an untrustworthy animal on whom the jockey was something of a passenger.
I read through his previous form and the horse has hung left on more than one occasion. When another horse came up on his left hand side, the horse seemed to drop himself out, Johnson has ridden the animal before so maybe more aware of his idiosyncrasies than most.

[nighthorse]

I did wonder at first if RJ was nervous of booting it into the last after his 2 spectacular unseatings at Exeter on Tuesday!

But I agree he rode a very odd race. Arctic Ben was giving him a pretty rough ride early on when he was fighting for his head, but jumped much better when he was allowed to go on. Then as they came to the last he looked to be running out of steam in 4th place, but obviously wasn’t as he picked up again close to the line. Very strange

[Anonymous]

It may be worth counting the number of whip strokes he´d given the horse, if it looked odd. I haven´t seen the race myself, but some questionable looking rides this past month have been down to fear of going "one over the odds".

[Eclipse First]

I counted none before the last, you couldn’t see the run-in on replay. "Has his own ideas about the game" might be a polite way of putting it.

[Hurdygurdyman]

Well AP has won on hundreds of horses who had their own idea about the game but then again that’s why he’s champion.

No doubt he’s a complete dog and although he wasn’t seen to be using the whip it could be the horse resents it and just curls up when he’s hit.

I’ve seen some jockeys take a pull and deliberately let others pass give the horse a breather then come again but that clearly wasn’t the case here.

When he stopped riding the other went clear but then they started coming back to him. He was still a few lengths down on the third but closing without trying.

He probably got a bit of a surprise and thought **** I better start riding again.

I maintain it was an exceptionally bad bit of assumptive riding by RJ and jockeys have been banned for less.

However he knows the horse and once the winner had pulled a length or 2 clear he’s probably known the horse wouldn’t go on so just eased him down to all but a canter.

I don’t suppose he was to know his horse could canter faster than two of the three in front could run

[MarkTT]

We often come across race when a jockey drops his hands near the finish of the race, loses 2nd or 3rd place and end up with a hefty ban.

I wasn’t around yesterday, didn’t have a bet, so I was just catching up on some video watching.

I can’t believe what I just saw.

Richard Johnson, was riding Artic Ben in the 1.50 at Towester.

I watched this race live. He was travelling comfortably and when he started to go backwards, i expected to see him urge / bump the horse along. Nothing. If you look closely he talks to the jockey of the eventual winner at the bottom of the straight. No effort, just sits there.
I expected him to walk in last but then you side him ride out the finish !

I’d love to hear an explanation but the race wasn’t high profile enough

[ricky lake]

Hurdy , interesting post , but I would say , you had better get used to it , under new whip rules , loads of horses will be pulled up when jocks are unsure about the number of cushioned smacks leftor given

Punters will eventually despair

Dont take my word for it , talk to he betting shop regulars and listen to what they are saying ….nobody has consulted them , and yes you are right , they are pretty important

Ricky

[cormack15]

Ricky –

‘loads of horses’

haven’t been getting pulled up under the new rules

so that refutes the statement you made.

[ricky lake]

Corm , early days , wait until its heavy Dec and Jan, then come back to me

You are wrong on this issue , just plain wrong , but time will tell

cheers

Ricky

[nighthorse]

Hurdy , interesting post , but I would say , you had better get used to it , under new whip rules , loads of horses will be pulled up when jocks are unsure about the number of cushioned smacks leftor given
Ricky

If a jockey was concerned about breaking the whip rule he would try urging the horse with hands, heels, voice, whatever.

In this particular case RJ just sat there doing absolutely nothing. On a fairly tight rein too…….Hmmm

[Author]

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