"Racing ability; that's the be all and end all as far as I'm concerned,"
So says Britain's
perpetual top trainer over the past couple of decades, in a
recent Racing Post article.
Mark Johnston was referring to the way his team at Kingsley House approach the
yearling sales, and it is a fascinating insight.
Mark goes on "We have pretty basic criteria. The first dam must have, as an absolute minimum, a rating over 90 and/or have produced stock rated over 90. We do a lot of homework before we go to the sales, and if we haven't selected a horse on paper beforehand I won't look at it once I'm there. Very, very few from the shortlist would be completely rejected once they've been selected on paper. I narrowed it down to about 80 at the Goffs UK Premier Sale (of 2018) and only one was of no interest at all. Pedigree decides whether we're interested in the horse and then the physical decides how much we'll be willing to pay for it."
Well, that made me sit up, almost choked on my morning bacon roll.
I mean, especially that last bit.......for years I've believed in the
buying mantra of 'the eye selects the horse, the page tells you how
much'.....
Now, I seem to recall in those pre-internet days of the mid-90s, Mark,
himself a qualified vet, and his team of vets taking a slightly different approach at the Keeneland Yearling sales. The skeleton of each prospective acquisition
was scrutinised in detail by means of readily available x-rays and
purchases made, or yearlings discarded, on the back of this analysis.
You've got to come to the conclusion that here's a man who has learned
from experience over the years, and looking at the purchases knocked
down to Mark Johnston in recent times, the overwhelming majority have
been bought for less than £100,000, and about a third for under £25
grand.
Sales figures that you'd not even expect to see a moderately successful
National Hunt trainer return.
More so, his 2 yr old results this year (2018) highlight a couple of remarkable buys/results for such a high profile trainer:
The three horses above are just some examples of Mark's buying strategy - emphasis on pedigree (quality of sire & dam specifically) - so the obvious conclusion being that there must have been clear conformation faults to ward off bloodstock agents. Mark opines that it must be hard for a bloodstock agent, an expert in his field, to justify to his client who has entrusted him with an order, the purchase of a horse who is 'turned out in front', 'back at the knee' or 'dishes near fore'. So, there is limited opposition in the sales ring for Mark when he steps in with his bids.
Now Mark Johnston is your archetypal Scotsman - well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. He likes nothing better than to fly in the face of current opinion. But he has not become Britain's 'winningmost' trainer by following trends, and he goes straight to the top of this month's 'most admired list' by his refusal to use racing's bloodstock agents and standing by his own judgment.
He who dares, wins.................Rodney.