Saturday 23 April will mark a new era in Jump Racing as Richard Johnson will become the 2015/16 Stobart Champion Jump Jockey for the first time, having previously been runner-up on 16 occasions.
To mark his inaugural victory, 20-times Champion Jump Jockey, Weighing Room colleague and friend, Sir Anthony McCoy will hand over a brand new trophy to Johnson - who has ridden over 200 winners this season alone and is the only active jockey to have ridden 3,000 career winners. The presentation will take place as part of Sandown Park Racecourse’s bet365 Jump Finale fixture.
McCoy commented: “I am delighted to have been asked to present the trophy to Richard - there is no one else I would rather be handing it over to. It is a defining moment in a jockey’s career to be handed the Championship title and Richard has been waiting for this moment for a while. It is so thoroughly deserved!”
The new trophy, which has been created by British silversmith Asprey of London, is due to be unveiled later this month after the previous trophy was decommissioned and presented to Sir Anthony in honour of his twenty successive Championships.
This raceday marks the end of the British Jump season, where we celebrate Jump racing's human and equine stars. We will welcome a Parade of Equine Champions and be handing out six end of season awards before racing, these include:
Champion Owner
Champion Trainer
Stobart Champion Conditional Jockey
Horse of the Year in association with Racing Post
Sandown Park "Special" Award
Stobart Champion Jump Jockey
This is all part of an exciting day's racing, headed with the feature race, the bet365 Gold Cup.
Notes to Editors:
1. A day at the races at Sandown Park has it all with top-level racing throughout the year including the bet365 Meeting, Coral-Eclipse Summer Festival and Tingle Creek Christmas Festival meetings as well as our popular Music Nights. More information is available at www.sandown.co.uk
Sandown Park Racecourse is part of The Jockey Club, which has been at the heart of British racing for more than 260 years. Today the largest commercial group in the sport, The Jockey Club runs the largest racecourse group in the UK by turnover (2014: £162.9m), courses (15) including those at Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and Newmarket, attendances (2015: 1.95m), total prize money (2015: £43.9m), contribution to prize money (2015: £19.9m) and quality racing (Group and Graded races); more than 3,000 acres of world-class training grounds in Newmarket, Lambourn and Epsom Downs; The National Stud breeding enterprise and education provider; and the charity for racing's people in need, Racing Welfare. Governed by Royal Charter, every penny The Jockey Club makes it puts back into British racing.
2. Prize Money Breakdown
Champion Jump Jockey:
Winner – £15,000
Runner up – £10,000
Third – £5,000
Fourth – £3,000
Fifth – £2,000
Total: £35,000
Champion Conditional:
Winner – £5,000
Stobart Group is the leading and best known Infrastructure and Support Services business in the UK, operating within the biomass energy, aviation and railway sectors as well as having investments in a national property and logistics portfolio. Stobart is a British Superbrand owning brands including Eddie Stobart and London Southend Airport.
