Johnson hit with whip ban

Richard Johnson, who had earlier won the Royal & SunAlliance Chase on One Knight, incurred a five-day suspension for a whip offence when completing a double on Henry Daly’s Young Spartacus in the Mildmay Of Flete Challenge Cup at Cheltenham.

The stewards found Johnson guilty of using his whip with excessive force and he will be sidelined from March 21 to 25.

He said: “It is a very fine line, but I am not complaining – it is just one of those things.”

Stipendiary steward William Nunneley said: “The vet reported that the horse was marked and injured and had been hit in the wrong place. That was confirmed by a steward.”