It's Tricky To Pass Dickie

Mike Drowne talks to Harry Skelton, who is hot on the champ’s heels this winter

- Mike Drowne

 HARRY Skelton admits he’s waiting for Richard Johnson to retire before thinking of becoming champion jockey – just like “Dickie” did with Tony McCoy.

The pair have been pretty much neck and neck through the summer jumping season but the gap is sure to open up again now the real winter action gets going.

Johnson knows how that feels having chased AP in second place for so many years. Now the boot is on Skelton’s foot but he doesn’t seem to mind. The lack of outside rides is his main problem.

Last season Johnson had 1026 mounts, double the amount the 28-year-old had and the senior man has already partnered 100 more horses then Skelton this term.

Reflecting on challenging for the title, he said: “Catching Dickie is pretty unrealistic, quite frankly I see no chance of that, if I could hold my pitch in second that would be brilliant.

“I’d love to be champion jockey one day. It’s very hard I don’t get many outside rides, I’m in seven days a week at home, I concentrate on that, make sure that goes right. That’s my priority.”

Success has not come easily for Skelton, after a successful spell riding for Paul Nicholls and landing the Irish Grand National at the age of 19, his career began to go downhill.

After splitting with Nicholls and losing his claim, he struggled to get rides and in 2012-2013 only managed to ride eight winners. Reflecting on the tough times, Skelton said: “I came to Paul’s and got legged up on a lot of nice horses and to not have that wasn’t very nice, you thought one day you were good enough for the job then the next maybe you weren’t.