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Johnson looking ahead to next season

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Richard Johnson has admitted he’s already looking forward to next season after jumps racing was put on hold until July.

Last season’s champion jockey was on the verge of losing his crown to Brian Hughes when all horse racing in Britain was postponed last month, with the latter holding an advantage of 19 race victories.

Hughes has now been confirmed as the champion jockey for the first time, taking the title from four-time winner Johnson. Hughes was successful in 141 races during the season, while Johnson was runner-up with 122.

The British Horseracing Authority announced last week jump racing would not return until July 1 at the earliest but there are tentative plans for Flat racing to be restarted in May.

Johnson admits it’s been a tough season to endure after he recovered from breaking his arm in a fall at Exeter in January as he attempted to chase down Hughes and then the coronavirus outbreak putting a stop to the action.

He said: “Things haven’t quite gone smoothly this year, but I’ve been very fortunate actually for a long time that I haven’t had many bad runs. The second half of the season didn’t go quite as we’d hoped, but for everyone now it’s been a very poor year.

“It’s one of those things, we’re looking forward to getting going at some point and fingers crossed I’ll be doing everything to try to regain the championship and go from there, but it’s just one of those things, we’ve got to get through the next few months hopefully and get going again.

“I’ve got lots to look forward to with all my different yards next season, with lots of horses coming through and also the nice ones we’ve already got – the likes of Thyme Hill and Brewin’upastorm.”

He added on Sky Sports: “I’m just looking forward to getting past all this and looking forward to the new season, but the most important thing at the moment is obviously the health of the nation and the world. We all understand that, it’s a hard time for everyone in the world.

“We’re all in the same boat and we’ve just got to try to look forward and get through it as best we can.”

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