Pic from the past: Deluge of entries

GUESS WHO: This week's personality.

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Jockey great Peter Johnson says he misses raceday riding but not the baggage that went with it.

Johnson made an appearance in last week's Racing Times as the mystery identity in our weekly Pic from the Past competition.

Only, it wasn't a great mystery as Johnson's portrait attracted the most entries of any week when the competition hasn't featured on the waikatotimes.co.nz website.

Johnson didn't get to see the paper but said: ''I certainly heard about. People were telling me.''

These days retired from the saddle, though there was no formal announcement - he preferred to slip off the scene quietly, Johnson said his racing focus these days was his daughter, talented apprentice Danielle Johnson.

Though he revealed he made a rare appearance in the saddle last week, when Danielle was away, to ride a horse for his trainer wife Annabelle, who saddles Bert at Te Rapa tomorrow.

Johnson said blinkers would sharpen Bert, who won at the same meeting last year, and he believed the galloper would be competitive.

He said he pulled up in good order after the trackwork ride.

''I'm pretty fit. Chasing sheep around keeps you in good shape,'' he said.

Johnson won two Taumarunui Cups, riding the Ken and Bev Kelso-trained Zama Boy in 1990 and Watch Officer for Bruce McLeod in 1998.

He also won a bevy of top races in New Zealand and overseas during a glittering career but he was reluctant to single one out.

''I won Easters, Wellington Cups, Guineas races but they're all good. Any race is good really,'' said Johnson, whose New Zealand tally of winners was 1370.

Asked whether he missed the riding, Johnson said: ''I do but I don't miss the starving and being hungry all the time, the wasting, the dehydration. I had to work pretty hard to keep my weight down and I don't miss that one bit.''

From the entry barrel, June Crow was picked out as this week's winner.

She wins a month's free subscription to the formpro.co.nz website, valued at more than $40.

There she can access tips, form comment and race sectional analysis from form expert Neil Davis.

This week's Pic from the Past portrait features a well-known racing broadcaster and auctioneer with a self-confessed ability to speak underwater with a mouthful of marbles.

Simple identify this week's personality and email aidan.rodley@waikatotimes.co.nz to go into the draw for a month's free subscription to formpro.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News