Sandown thrills

The difference between praying in church and praying at the racecourse, a gnarled old punter once said, is that at the track you really mean it. At Sandown last Saturday, the last day of the jumping season, all our prayers were answered: you simply could not have asked for a better day.

One reason we were all there was to celebrate Richard Johnson’s first jockeys’ championship after 16 times finishing a good-tempered and sporting second to his friend A.P. McCoy. In between the autograph-signing, Dickie Johnson provided the perfect seasonal sign-off by winning the bet365 Oaksey Chase on Menorah for trainer Philip Hobbs in the familiar blue colours of Diana Whateley. Jumping folk like nothing more than victory for an old familiar and the 11-year-old, who had won the same race for the previous two years, was cheered all the way from the second last by the huge crowd. Congratulated on the part he had played in Richard Johnson’s first title, Philip Hobbs noted that his stable jockey could actually have won the title without his contribution.