Eve Johnson Houghton has saddled three Royal Ascot winners, including a Group One, in the past eight years, having bought all three for a combined total of just under £30,000, and as she set out on the business of buying next year’s two-year-olds at the Doncaster sales on Wednesday, the trainer made the process of equine bargain-hunting sound simple enough.
“I just like a nice horse,” Johnson Houghton said. “You’re looking for different things for different clients, but they’ve got to walk well and have a good outlook, and I have to forgive a few things as well, because they can’t be perfect specimens at my price.
“Sometimes it’s the stallion that people are cold on, or it’s not entirely correct [physically], but they’ve got to have a good outlook and a good eye, I think.”
If it were that straightforward, though, everyone would be doing it, and the truth is that few, if any, British trainers have played the lower end of the market with as much success as Johnson Houghton in recent years.
Brighton 1.52 Cloudy Rose 2.22 Calafiori 2.52 Redditizio (nap) 3.22 Pop Dancer 3.52 Dragonflame 4.22 Oj Lifestyle 4.52 Alshimali (nb)
Worcester 2.10 Jeudidee 2.40 Faitque De L’Isle 3.10 Axel Bleue 3.40 Dream Diamond 4.10 Washpool 4.40 Noble Recall 5.10 A Mere Bagatelle 5.40 Quick Of The Night
Johnson Houghton is a third-generation trainer at Woodway Stables, which was purchased by her grandmother, Helen, in 1945, whose many successes from the yard, including a 2,000 Guineas victory with Gilles de Retz in 1956, went unrecorded – in the form-book sense at least – as women were not allowed to hold a trainer’s licence until the mid-1960s. It was not until December 1977 that Johnson Houghton’s achievements were finally recognised, when she became one of the first three women elected to membership of the Jockey Club that had refused her a licence two decades earlier.
Her father, Fulke Johnson Houghton, then held the licence at the family stable from 1961 until 2007, saddling more than 1,200 winners including Ile De Bourbon in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1978. He remained a key presence in the stable until his death in February this year, and Johnson Houghton says that she is “still really lucky to have Dad as my backup. I’ve really, really missed him this year, but it was a great grounding and I’ve still got my mum around, which is fabulous. Trainers are the ones with our names in lights but no trainer is capable without their team, and I’ve got a brilliant yard team as well.
“We’re a wonderfully old-fashioned yard, I try to make small improvements every year, but I took over an amazing place and you can’t get away from the basics. I’m lucky enough to train for some wonderful people as well, and they trust me to do the best with them.”
Accidental Agent, a home-bred who was unwanted at the sales and bought back for 8,000 gns (£8,400), won the Group One Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2018. Chipotle, a 10,000 gns (£10,500) yearling, took the Windsor Castle Stakes at the Royal meeting three years later, while this summer has been a triumph for the trainer’s eye for a bargain, with Havana Hurricane, at 9,000 gns (£9,450) taking the Windsor Castle and the unbeaten Zavateri, still a relatively cheap buy at 35,000 gns (£36,750), proving to be one of 2025’s best juveniles. Two Group Two victories – in the July Stakes at Newmarket and the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood – mean that he has already repaid his purchase price more than four times over.
As a result, Johnson Houghton is on course to reach £1m in prize money in Britain in a season for the first time since she took over the licence at the magnificent 200-acre Woodway Stables, near Blewbury in Oxfordshire, in 2007. There are extra orders, too, to be filled at the yearling sales over the next couple of months, though not necessarily any increase in her individual budgets. Everyone loves a bargain, after all. “I have, definitely [got more orders], but all to a level,” she says. “Which is great, don’t get me wrong, but it would be nice to get a few more … grown-up orders, shall we say? As I keep trying to tell everyone, it’s amazing if you can actually win a Royal Ascot race for 10 grand. It’s possible, but it’s bloody hard, and you’ve got to be at it a long time to do that. The owner of Havana Hurricane had some disasters with me before that, and he stuck at it and in the end, we got it right.”
Another essential talent when buying racehorses at auction is knowing when to let go.
“You set your price and sometimes you might say, I’ll give it another kick, but other times, you just walk away,” she says. “You have to, you can’t overspend and just because you pay more, it doesn’t necessarily mean you get any better. You just don’t have to forgive so much.”
Brighton 2.15 Another Baar 2.45 London Is Blue (nap) 3.15 Jazl 3.50 You Are Everything (nb) 4.20 Destinado 4.52 Laurentia 5.22 Toussarok
Carlisle 2.00 Tees George 2.30 Bushwacker 3.00 Pal Joey 3.30 Brian The Snail 4.05 Awraad 4.37 One Night Thunder 5.07 Milteye 5.37 Sweet Kiss
Windsor 4.30 Jungle Monarch 5.00 Lodge 5.30 Explosion 6.00 Likealot 6.30 Rage Of Thunder 7.00 Rosemary’s Rose 7.30 Nelson Gate
And though sticking to a budget might seem to rule out the need to consider every yearling at an auction like Doncaster, where around 400 horses will go under the hammer in two days and the top prices are into six figures, the opposite is often the case.
“I think you have to look at more,” Johnson Houghton says. “You have to look at everything in case something falls through the gaps. I won’t look at every horse here but Ant [the veteran bloodstock agent Anthony Bromley, the other half of her purchasing operation] will.”
Zavateri will bid to give his trainer the second Group One win of her career in his next start in either the National Stakes, at the Curragh next month, or the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October. Havana Hurricane, meanwhile, is being aimed at the Group Two Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting in just over two weeks’ time.
And all the while, their trainer will continue her meticulous search at the yearling sales, looking for a nice horse at the right price. “Bloody hard” it might be, but who would want to bet against Eve Johnson Houghton sifting another golden nugget from the auction ring before the year is out?
Balding’s Blue Bolt can take flight
The Solario Stakes is in the “feature” slot at Sandown on Saturday but the Group Three Atalanta Stakes at 2.25, with £85,000 in the prize fund, is the most valuable race on the card and has attracted a competitive 14-strong field with a dozen runners priced up including Flight, the runner-up in the 1,000 Guineas in May, a hugely promising novice winner in Alobayyah and Andrew Balding’s progressive Blue Bolt.
Flight won her maiden at Sandown last summer but needs to bounce back from a couple of sub-par runs in Group One company at the Curragh and Royal Ascot, and though William Haggas, Alobayyah’s trainer, is more than capable of getting one ready first time up, the strong recent form of Blue Bolt (2.25) is more persuasive.
Andrew Balding’s filly has won her last three starts with plenty to spare, including a Listed event over Saturday’s track and trip last time out and looks more than ready for this step up in grade.
Beverley 1.30 A beaten odds-on favourite on his two previous starts, Crown Of Oaks finally got off the mark at Ayr last time and has scope for further progress now he is up and running.
Sandown 1.50 William Buick is an eye-catching booking for Mick Appleby’s Kodi Lion, who looked an unlucky loser at Haydock last time.
Beverley 2.05 Royal Ascot winner Adrestia has the plum draw, remains progressive and offers some value against the likely favourite, Regional.
Chester 2.40 Tabletalk has been running above this grade so far this season and has a couple of pounds at least in hand of his rivals here.
Sandown 3.00 The form of the London Gold Cup at Newbury in May looks typically strong, with four subsequent winners from the nine runners so far, and the winner, Saddadd, should be a fifth as he makes his first start since off a 6lb higher mark.
Chester 3.15 The drop back to seven furlongs looks the right move for Hawksbill, who was headstrong over a mile at Haydock last time but still just a nose behind the winner.
Sandown 3.35 With likely favourite Publish an absentee, Charlie Appleby’s Pacific Avenue, a cosy winner on debut at Newmarket in June, can give the trainer a third Solario Stakes success in the last four seasons.
