Will he ever be the champ?

He is the second most winning National Hunt jockey in history but he has never yet managed to capture the jockey's championship. How he must rue that man McCoy!

Obviously I'm talking about the one and only Richard Johnson. A jockey that can confidently be relied upon to ride 120+ winners each and every season yet will never get the adulation he deserves as he has been unfortunate enough to be riding in the era of a legend; an unstoppable machine-like never say die legend!

Still Johnson doesn't appear to let the presence of McCoy get him down and simply gets on with the job of booting home the winners. As long he continues in this vain we can look to dig out the profitable angles that a man with over 2000 winners to his name surely produces (as well as having a root about to find his negative zones).

Can we profit when he is on the favourites?

What tracks does it pay to follow him at and where should we be carefullwith our hard earned?

Which trainers give him superstars to ride and which ones leg him up on duds?

Let's find out......

TRAINERS

Phillip Hobbs

Phillip Hobbs obviously supplies Johnson with the vast majority of his mounts but it's hard to get any concrete angles on the pair. However, there does appear to be one area that profits may be squeezed from the duo - 

Bumper runners making their NH debut for the Hobbs/Johnson combo

61 rides | 12 winners | 20% S/R | +£12.00 LSP

It's not much but at the moment the stats suggest we can profit from this angle.

Peter Bowen

Richard Johnson takes a number of mounts for the Welsh trainer and his chasers and bumper runners look the best area for us punters to concentrate on - 

Bowen/Johnson combo (except hurdle races)

79 rides | 22 winners | 28% S/R | +£14.73 LSP

A solid strike rate for the pairing and a positive LSP to boot.

Alison Thorpe

The jockey has not actually had a ride for Miss Thorpe since May 2010 but if they do happen to reacquaint themselves anytime soon we should certainly be taking notice - 

Thorpe/Johnson combo (hurdles only)

179 rides | 42 winners | 24% S/R | +£67.90 LSP

For whatever reason Johnson struggles to get the following 3 trainers horses home in front - 

J J O'Neill (*not ridden for the yard for over a year)

28 rides | 1 winner | 4% S/R | -£19.00 LSP

S Gollings

22 rides | 1 winner | 5% S/R | -£19.50 LSP

N Mulholland

12 rides | 0 winners | 0% S/R | -£12.00 LSP

TRACKS

Like any jockey the perennial championship runner-up has tracks he performs better at than others and some he just can't quite master - 

Fakenham (All handicap chases)

15 rides | 7 winners | 47% S/R | +£16.42 LSP

Impressive chase handicap figures from Johnson at the Norfolk track. Incidentally none of the winners were trained by his boss Phillip Hobbs.

Market Rasen (All non-handicap races)

61 rides | 16 winners | 26% S/R | +£27.95 LSP

Pleasing stats for Johnson with a solid strike-rate and LSP to his name at the track.

Ffos Las (all NHF races)

13 rides | 7 winners | 54% S/R | +£20.25 LSP

A cracking strike-rate and LSP in the bumpers at the newest track on the NH circuit for Johnson who has wasted no time in getting to grips with the track; a 54% strike-rate is something to take note of.

Again there are negatives for the jockey and these are just as important for us to consider - 

Newbury (All handicap chases)

67 rides | 4 winners | 6% S/R | -£42.67 LSP

For some reason the jockey struggles in handicaps at the Grade 1 track.

Newbury (All bumper races)

24 rides | 1 winner | 4% S/R | -£7.00 LSP

The complete opposite of his bumper superiority at Ffos Las here with only the 1 solitary winner in recent seasons.

Aintree (All chase races)

50 rides | 2 winners | 4% S/R | -£29.50 LSP

The Mildmay and national fences seem to have been a challenge for Johnson in recent seasons with only a paltry 4& strike-rate to his name at the track.

Sandown (All handicap races)

83 rides | 4 winners | 5% S/R | -£35.00 LSP

It could simply be the competitive nature of the Sandown handicaps that are responsible for the jockey's poor record but the stats are telling us his handicap winners at the track are few and far between. Kilcrea Kim's win on Saturday in the big Handicap Hurdle actually broke a 41 race losing streak for the jockey in these types of races.

MONTHS

As I mentioned in my last post this is not an angle that I generally consider, however, if you dig deep enough sometimes you will stumble across some truly remarkable stats - 

R Johnson mounts in Handicap Chases in the month of May

109 rides | 27 winners | 25% S/R | +£43.37 LSP

The above stat is pretty impressive in itself but check it gets better - 

R Johnson/T Vaughan combo in Handicap Chases in the month of May

15 rides | 12 winners | 80% S/R | +£24.25 LSP

An 80% strike-rate is a crazy figure! Certainly something to look forward to in May.......

FAVOURITES

Perhaps surprisingly Richard Johnson doesn't have a great record on favourites. It's not bad by any stretch but one would imagine that he his hugely over bet when riding a favourite and that shows on his LSP return.

His stats when riding favourites in handicap hurdles take the biggest battering - 

275 rides | 69 winners | 25% S/R | -£56.83 LSP

The relatively low 25% win S/R is a tad surprising and highlights the need to pick and choose when you back a Richard Johnson ridden Fav in a handicap hurdle.

The tricky thing when looking for positive and negative angles for a jockey like Richard Johnson is that he has a lot of middle ground stats i.e. neither really good or really bad. A lot of his stats suggest he is simply ticking away at a solid level, picking up a regular amount of winners each season. 

That's not to suggest he isn't a talented jockey, in fact it's probably the exact opposite. The fact he can continually maintain this level year in and year out underlines the strength and talent of the man, it just means we as punters have to really dig deep for his sweet spots and negative zones.

If only McCoy weren't about, eh Richard.......

Ben (NTF)