IF Anthony Honeyball was smiling at Exeter last Tuesday after winning, what Richard Johnson was wearing was a grimace, and a fall from Westend Story in the Dare To Dream Chase left the champion jockey with a broken right forearm which leaves his chances of retaining that championship seriously compromised.

Ironically, his main rival for the title, Brian Hughes, has refused to talk about his chances of winning on the basis that a dream-ending bad fall is always lurking around the corner.