Britain’s most prolific-winning trainer Mark Johnston is to cease training in his name with the licence passing to his son Charlie from the new year.
Johnston, 63, became the winningmost trainer of all time when he overtook the figure set by Richard Hannon snr with his 4,194th victory in 2018 and passed 5,000 winners in August, having shared the licence with his son since the start of 2022.
The four horses declared at Lingfield tomorrow will be the last to run in joint names with all horses declared from January 2 made in the name of 32-year-old Charlie Johnston.
Johnston explained he would be as committed as ever to Johnston Racing but felt under a joint licence his son was not getting the credit he deserved for the stable's successes.
"Charlie’s had a sole licence since the beginning of last week," said Mark Johnston. “It has just been coming. Nothing has really changed in terms of our roles. They will continue. I just didn’t feel that the joint-licence worked. It served a purpose and I’m not saying they shouldn’t have joint-licences, I just felt it was a bit of a limbo.
“When we had big successes, Charlie wasn’t getting credit for the part he plays. I just felt that if we were to have a spectacular winner somewhere, it wouldn’t be quite the same as being an individual.
“We went to a joint-licence at the beginning of last year and the plan was it would be at least three or four years, but I just felt there was no point. I just felt it should be one name.
“I’ll still be there, doing the same hours, but in not quite the same capacity as my name won’t be on the licence.”
Since launching his career in March 1987, Mark Johnston has built his operation in Middleham into one of the biggest and most successful in Europe. From 1994 onwards he has exceeded 100 winners in every season and has passed 200 winners ten times. His best year was 2019 when he sent out 249 winners in Britain and earned £5.4 million in prize-money.
Johnston has trained 27 Group 1 winners and two British Classic winners, Mister Baileys who won the 2,000 Guineas in 1994 and five-time Group 1 winner Attraction, who won the 1,000 Guineas in 2004.
Among his many Royal Ascot successes, he has won the Gold Cup four times, with Double Trigger (1995), Royal Rebel (2001, 2002) and Subjectivist (2021).
