Richard Johnson: How I won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Native River
Richard Johnson tells us how he won yesterday's Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup with the brilliantly brave Native River in his latest column.
I ALWAYS thought we had a great chance of winning.
I say we because to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup is a team effort.
The horse, the trainer, the stable staff, the jockey — and, of course, the weather. They all play their part.
Thankfully everything came together at the right time. From a personal point of view it is fantastic to win our biggest race.
However, this is not about me. Colin and Joe Tizzard deserve all the credit for having Native River absolutely primed to perfection. And then we have the horse himself.
And what a horse he is. He has a massive heart and just gets on with the job.
He has now won a Gold Cup, a Welsh National, a Hennessy and two Denman Chases.
When you ride horses like him it is easy. You let him do his thing. He makes you look good.
The race panned out just as I hoped. All I wanted to do was get him out there jumping and into a nice rhythm.
He felt great and, about five fences out, I felt I needed to get the race going. I didn’t want it to turn into a sprint from the second-last.
It actually helped me having Might Bite alongside as I wouldn’t have fancied going on by myself only for Native River to get lonely.
I squeezed him down off the bend and, to be honest, he picked up better than I thought.
I was a bit longer than I planned to be at the fourth-last, but he’s a great jumper. If he’s long he’s brilliant, if he’s short he’s brilliant.
He’s an eight-year-old and has really strengthened up since last year. The more you ask him the more he gives.
That’s what you need in a Gold Cup — a very good horse but also a very brave horse. When we jumped the last I knew he would keep on finding up the hill. The conditions suited him down to the ground.
Might Bite may well have touched down together with us at the last but Native River just found another gear while Nico’s horse found the going just too much.
We probably put the race to bed in the matter of a few strides after the last but I kept my head down and kept on driving to the line.
I didn’t get a chance to look at the big screen but I could hear the crowd roaring all the way up the straight.
When we passed the line it was just the most amazing feeling.