Johnson First & Daylight Second in NZ

Danielle Johnson is only just starting to allow herself the luxury of enjoying the feeling of satisfaction that comes with taking out her first national jockeys’ premiership in New Zealand. A winning double aboard It Might Be You and Gerda at Te Rapa on Saturday, took her tally to 151 victories, with 15 of those coming at black type level, according to racingnews.co.nz. With just one week left in the 2020/21 season, remarkably she sits 63 wins ahead of her nearest rival Samantha Collett (88), however she has been determined to focus on the job at hand over the last few months despite being hailed as the premiership winner as far back as January. “It’s my first premiership, so that is special, but I’ve tried to put it out of my mind despite people telling me it was in the bag for at least the last few months… It was only in the last month or so that I decided to try and get to the 150-win mark, so to have made it with a week to spare is a great feeling as well.” Along with taking out her first jockeys’ premiership, Johnson also brought up another milestone this season by breaking the 1000 career wins mark, with her current tally sitting at 1031 victories and over $20 million in prizemoney earnings.

Danielle Johnson has won 150 races this season (pic: Trish Dunell)