Chief Executive Pat Masterson must have felt frustrated at the start of Saturday with his Easter meeting playing to a crowd restricted to owners and lacking the public who traditionally turn up in their thousands for the holiday fixture.
Little did he know that in less than 10 hours Newton Abbot would become the centre of the racing universe.
Much loved and admired figure Richard Johnson shocked his sport by announcing his retirement after finishing third on Brother Tedd in the penultimate race on the card. The impact was compounded by the additional fact that it was with immediate effect.
This was in total contrast to great friend and rival AP McCoy, who, after announcing his retirement, had until the end of that 2015 season to bid his farewells.
This was not untypical of a jockey, who, although owning the second-best career statistics of all time, spent his racing life in the shadows of AP, being runner up to him in the National Hunt jockey’s championship on 17 occasions before finally achieving his career goal by winning that championship four times after his great rival’s retirement.
Richard, known across the industry as Dickie, was renowned for his modesty, honesty and decency. The tributes that poured in for him were long and genuine and you could almost feel his embarrassment under this incessant praise.
Dickie was a particularly popular figure in the South West and at Newton Abbot.
Jimmy Frost said: “Hats off to one of the nicest, toughest people you will ever meet. I remember on one occasion visiting him in hospital in Exeter after a particularly bad leg break and he was even then still smiling through the pain.
“During my training career, I would book him whenever I could and he rode around 15 winners for us, including memorable wins on stable favourites Longstone Lady and Critical Stage”
The racing itself on Saturday had to play second fiddle to this announcement but it was a good day for a man who intends to replace Richard as the South West’s leading rider. Harry Cobden continued his quest for his first ever jockey’s championship with wins on Hell Red and Eritage for his main stable Paul Nichols with a bonus win for Nick Williams on Aimee de Sivola.