Three time Champion Jockey Richard Johnson was given his OBE by the Queen at Buckingham palace on Tuesday for his services to horse racing.
The 41 year old is the leading jumps jockey in Britain for the last three seasons and looks to add one more to his tally this season, currently being at the top of the leaderboard and clear for another year.
Johnson has rode over 3,500 winners in his career and he hit that Milestone at the back end of 2018 which helped towards the Queen noticing him and giving him his OBE.
During his 25-year career the jockey had to wait a long time to get his hands on the Champion Jockey title finishing second behind racing Legend Sir A P McCoy 16 times and as soon as he retired Johnson stepped up to the plate.
(Credit Sporting Life) After collecting his honour at Buckingham Palace, the rider said: "She asked me how the championship is going - and obviously Cheltenham is just around the corner.
"She is very engaging, and obviously it was a privilege for me that she presented the award.
"Obviously she does not do all of these ceremonies, so to get here and discover she was doing this one left me feeling that I could not be more pleased."
Richard Johnson gained his first winner back in 1994 at his home track of Hereford and since then has not looked back.
He picked up the Champion Conditional Jockey in the season of 1995/96 when he was just the tender age of 18 and from then he was destined to be one of the greatest jockeys to grace the sport.
Johnson has had his fair share of winners at the pinnacle of jumps racing during his career and his first at the Cheltenham festival in 1999 in the Grade 1 Stayers Hurdle on board the Alan King trained Anzum.
The Gold Cup is a title that every jumps jockey in the sport wants to win at some point in there career and Johnson has been lucky enough to win it twice.
His first came in 2000 on board Looks Like Trouble and then 18 years later he won it again with the Colin Tizzard trained Native River and this year he is looking to do the same and land back to back Gold Cups with the same horse.
In 2002 at the festival he became the top jockey for the week and this was helped by his Queen Mother Champion Chase victory with Flagship Uberalles.
He is one of three jockeys that is still riding today that have gone on to win all four championship races at the festival with Barry Geraghty and Ruby Walsh being the others.
Johnson has had a fantastic career, that he is adding accolades to year by year and this OBE is just another milestone in a glorious 25 years in the saddle.