Stellar names adorn Mark Johnston’s glittering training CV
With a record number of career winners, there are obviously plenty of horses Mark Johnston can look back on with fond memories. While the likes of Branston Abby, Yavana’s Pace and Fruits Of Love all deserve honourable mentions, here are six of the top horses from the team that was ‘Always Trying’:
Attraction
This filly defied her famously unconventional action to bag five Group One wins, including both the English and Irish 1,000 Guineas in 2004. Johnston showed patience in spades to nurse her back from injury during her four-year-old season, with that skill paying dividends as she signed off her career with Matron Stakes glory at Leopardstown.
Shamardal
This horse has become of one of the key sires of recent times and it was Johnston who guided his unbeaten three-start juvenile career, culminating in a comprehensive Dewhurst Stakes win in 2004. Shamardal was subsequently transferred to Saeed bin Suroor, for whom he won three Group Ones before injury ended his career.
Double Trigger
This flashy chestnut with a big white blaze built up quite a following by virtue of his eyecatching looks and bold running style. He completed the stayers’ grand slam in 1995, winning the Ascot, Goodwood and Doncaster Cups. He has a statue in his honour on Town Moor after winning the Doncaster Cup three times, while he also completed a hat-trick at Goodwood.
Royal Rebel
Involved in one of the most famous Ascot Gold Cup battles ever, Royal Rebel showed guts aplenty to edge out Persian Punch by a head after the pair slugged it out in the final furlong in 2001. Not the most straightforward of animals, Johnston got him back to top form for the Royal meeting the following year, when he rallied after looking beaten to see off Vinnie Roe by a neck.
Mister Baileys
A landmark horse in Johnston’s career, Mister Baileys was a dual Group-race winner as a juvenile, but was allowed to go off a 16-1 shot when he won the 2000 Guineas by the shortest of short heads in 1994. Connections opted to take the brave route and head to Epsom for the Derby, but having sat clear with half a mile to run, he ran out of gas and faded into fourth.
Subjectivist
This son of Teofilo was Johnston’s most recent and ultimately final staying star – winning the Prix Royal-Oak, the Dubai Gold Cup and last year’s Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in the space of nine months. He looked like he might become the new dominant force in the division after the most recent of those triumphs, but a subsequent injury means he has not been seen since.
