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Will it be the Derby next?
Although Mark Johnston is now Britain’s record-breaking trainer, ambitions have not come to an end – a Derby victory is the next target, writes Marcus Townend
Although Mark Johnston is now Britain’s record-breaking trainer, ambitions have not come to an end – a Derby victory is the next target, writes Marcus TownendDon’t think for one second that becoming the man who has trained more British winners than any other rival, past or present, has come close to satisfying the ambition of Mark Johnston.Don’t think for one second that becoming the man who has trained more British winners than any other rival, past or present, has come close to satisfying the ambition of Mark Johnston.
There are heaps more races to be won and the Scot, who broke the record previously held by Richard Hannon Snr when the Frankie Dettori-ridden Poet’s Society gave him victory 4,194 at York’s Ebor meeting last month, has his eye on a couple in particular.
Dee Ex Bee’s second place to Godolphin’s Masar in the Investec Derby at Epsom in June, both whetted his appetite for more and promoted a re-think in Johnston’s approach to Britain’s most prestigious Flat race.
“I would swap every winner I’ve had at Catterick for a Derby winner,” Johnston said. “Classics are very important. I used to say I did not care about winning the Derby, I would rather have the Dubai World Cup or the Japan Cup, something that was worth a lot more money.
“But coming second brought it home to me how important the Derby is. I haven’t deserved to win it so far because I have not tried hard enough.
“I have not had enough runners and neither has Sheikh Mohammed. Hopefully, having won it this year, it will maybe change his attitude to the race a bit, too.
“With all due respect, one of the principal reasons Aidan O’Brien wins the Derby more than anyone else is that he tries to win it more than anyone else. He runs nearly more horses than everyone else put together.
“I used to say, and still do to some extent, go to sales with 10 grand to try and buy a Derby winner and you end up winning the Ascot Gold Cup. That was [Johnston’s 1995 Ascot Gold Cup winner] Double Trigger.
“But we do go to the sales looking for the Classic 1m4f horses. Those are the pedigrees we were looking for. I should have had the courage to shoot more at the Derby.”
It’s not just Epsom at the start of the British summer where Johnston would like to make an impact.
“I’d also love to win the Japan Cup,” he says. “I have not been there since 2000, but it is the most exciting race I have ever been at. It knocks things like the Melbourne Cup into touch.
“The attitude of the Japanese is wonderful. Next to Britain, they are the greatest racing nation.
“Britain has the best racing, there is no getting away from that as long as we can recognise why and don’t turn it all into flat, round sand tracks.
“But the Japanese are the biggest threat to the British title because their supporters have the best attitude. We can see that at the Arc when they come in their droves all desperate to win it. The atmosphere at the Japan Cup is second to none.”
When 58-year-old Johnston sets his sights on something, he tends to achieve it.
His deep reserves of energy seem insatiable too. As well as training, he has been a BHA director. He is currently on the board at Hamilton racecourse and a trustee of The Racing Foundation, the charitable organisation set up from the proceeds of the government’s privatisation of the Tote.
He also qualified as a pilot and flies himself to the races.
In the past he’s written columns for racing’s trade papers as well as The Times, never shying away from an issue and always bashing out his copy on a laptop himself rather than having it ghosted.
His written words now are reserved for his monthly stable magazine, The Kingsley Klarion.
What made Johnston’s record-breaking exploits all the more remarkable was the road he travelled to get there.
Nowadays, there may be close to 250 horses in his stable at the North Yorkshire training centre Middleham, but when he started out training on the Lincolnshire coast between Grimsby and Mablethorpe in 1987 there were only 12 and the most of them were lame or useless and on the list purely because that was the minimum number of horses Johnston needed to obtain his licence.
Johnston was a vet and his wife and assistant Deirdre a teacher. They reckoned what they were doing was a limited gamble.
They’d been lent £5,000 by Deirdre’s father, taken out a £45,000 endowment mortgage to buy a stable as far away from racing’s heartlands as it was possible to get and obtained a £15,000 overdraft facility.
The fear of failure that Johnston says has driven his career did not apply because the odds seemed so stacked against him it would have been a waste of energy.
If it all went wrong, they reasoned, they could go back to their original professions.
But from the July day at Carlisle in 1987 when Hinari Video gave him his first winner to Poet’s Society’s success on the Knavesmire, Johnston’s simple philosophy has paid dividends.
“Always Trying” has been the stable motto. It could equally have been “Always Winning” and Johnston believes it is impossible to underestimate the importance of success.
Double Eclipse at Royal Ascot
The trainer, who would have been champion 12 times if the title was decided on number of winners, said: “I’ll leave it to other people to judge whether the record is my greatest achievement.
“I have always accepted that the champion trainer title should be decided on money. I have never argued with that just as I firmly believe champion jockey title should be decided on numbers of winners.
“Winners is what it is all about at the end of the day. I know every year when we get to late summer and we have had 150-odd winners with a big spread of them across the owners, all those owners will be there next year.
“There is no doubt for owners, big and small, it is all about winning.
“If you ask owners, ‘Would you rather win a race and get four grand for coming first or come second and get eight?’, they will all say they would rather come second and get eight but that is not the reality.
“When they come second, no matter what they get in prize-money, they are often disappointed. When they win, they are never disappointed.
“Even big owners get fed up being beaten and so they should.”
Johnston reached win 4,194 in 31 years and two months. It took Hannon Snr 43 years to reach the same figure.
He will ultimately hand over the reins of his stable to son and assistant Charlie, 27, and, interestingly, the business name Mark Johnston Racing recently changed to Johnston Racing to reflect the family nature of the operation.
That hand-over, Johnston insists, is not imminent but it should be smooth thanks to what might be his greatest legacy to the sport – the training model he pioneered and many now follow.
The Johnston stable is broken down into units, each containing around 30 horses and with its own manager. The system was introduced to foster greater responsibility after an unsatisfactory incident.
Johnston said: “Normally a stable has had a trainer, an assistant, a pupil assistant and head lad. That’s how we used to be, although we have never had a pupil assistant.
“I can remember the day I thought this must change. Joe Mercer had come to look at Sheikh Maktoum’s horses and one was lame. He had no shoe on and Joe said he has a nail left in his foot.
“We looked at the x-rays. There was the nail and Joe pointed at it. Everyone then passed the buck.
“The head lad was blaming the lad and the lad was blaming the assistant. I said, ‘This is all wrong. There has to be one person who is responsible,’ so I changed it.”
Some would say, with some justification, Johnston has changed the sport as well. He’s certainly left his Mark.
Although Mark Johnston is now Britain’s record-breaking trainer, ambitions have not come to an end – a Derby victory is the next target, writes Marcus Townend
