‘Make the most of it while you’re up there’ From racing pigeons to training winners at Cheltenham, Aintree and Ascot, Coronation Street fan Howard Johnson shares his lucky streak with TIM RICHARDS A telephone call from Michael Dickinson prompted trainer Howard Johnson to dwell on his unprecedented achievement of saddling winners this year at the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals, as well as Royal Ascot. Dickinson, responsible for the first five home in Bregawn’s Cheltenham Gold Cup of l983 pointed out that not even the legendary Vincent O’Brien, who scaled the heights of their profession both on the flat and over jumps, had saddled winners in the same year at those three landmark meetings.

Digging into a salmon salad while watching racing from Goodwood in the kitchen of White Lea Farm, Co Durham,Johnson produces a bright-eyed smile.

“It’s been hard getting to this level, but it’s even harder stopping here. Know what I mean?” he says in his Geordie accent.

He dispatched Arcalis, No Refuge and Inglis Drever from his stable at Crook to carry off three of the major hurdle races at Cheltenham in March, before Grey Abbey produced one of his inexorable front-running exhibitions to win the Betfair Bowl at the Grand National meeting.

Two months later, and in total contrast to those tough winter war horses, the nippy two- year-old Masta Plasta gave Johnson his first visit to the Royal Ascot winners’ enclosure at York after the Norfolk Stakes.

“Yes, those were great days for us,” reflects the ruddy-faced farmer. “The buzz is tremendous and you must make the most of it while you’re up there. I always say enjoy the three o’clock because you’ll be back down at half past.”

Johnson, 52, has a background steeped in cattle and horses that has led him to new conquests in the national hunt world. However, it was a big surprise to him and many others when he was asked to prepare a string of 40 flat horses for Tyneside computer software billionaire Graham Wylie.

Four years ago the owner of those three Cheltenham winners, as well as Masta Plasta, appeared on the doorstep of White Lea Farm and asked Johnson if he wanted to have ago on the flat, but not to worry if he didn’t because they would just buy more jumpers.

“I ummed and aahed,” recalls Johnson. “But then my wife Sue, who is daft about the flat, said ‘Go on, have ago’. So off I Went and bought some yearlings.

” The pair now has a thriving partnership, although Johnson admits the summer has not been straightforward, even though 10 of the 30 two-year olds to run had won six races by the end of July.

“We all know how the jumpers get legs, but I have had a hell of a lot of trouble with sore shins with the flat horses,” he explains.

“When I started at the yearling sales I found myself assessing what they would look like as three or four-year-old hurdlers, so! didn’t buy the sharp little flat horse I should have done. That was my mistake, trying to buy a big, backward thing that I could imagine jumping a fence.”

Johnson is the first to acknowledge the pluses gained from his experience as a stockman — despite being kicked in the head by a cow and having to wear a hearing aid in his left ear—in the mould of those celebrated Yorkshire dealers Peter and Mick Easterby.

“Being around cattle, and my racing pigeons, when I was young has helped me understand when a horse is out of sorts,” he says. “lam not a great believer in blood tests or scoping; you can see for yourself if a horse has a bright eye.”

As a 15-year-old, Johnson fell into the trap that has snared hundreds of wannabe jockeys. He set out to become the next Lester Piggott. until Arthur Stephenson — the celebrated figure among national hunt trainers —pointed out the error of his ways. He joined Stephenson straight from Barnard Castle School, famed for producing rugby stars Rob Andrew and the Underwood brothers, where Johnson had showed a talent as a hooker on the rugby field. “

Arthur said! should have been an amateur rider, rather than an apprentice because I was too heavy for the flat,” he says. “I learnt a lot from him, particularly how long, steady work benefited the jumpers. He fed all the horses himself in the morning and went round them at evening stables in his vest, braces and cap!”

The hard school of Stephenson has rubbed off on Johnson. He has expanded the 300 acres farmed by his father Roy to 1,000, and by autumn he Will have 120 jumpers on the place. “

Jumping is a labour of love,” he says, adding: “so many of the farming fraternity in the north wouldn’t entertain a flat horse. The flat is more of a financial venture. Graham and I have invested in Transcend Bloodstock with a view to winning with horses and then selling them.That’s what we’d like to do with Masta Plasta and Pacific Pride, who was second at Royal Ascot.”

Johnson’s association with Wylie,who sold multi-national computer giant Sage for millions, has changed his life, but it hasn’t stopped him pursuing one of his passions, Coronation Street. Interrupt that half hour at your peril. Nor has it turned him into an IT whizz.

“I can’t even use a fax,” he confesses. Wylie’s 80 horses have raised the Johnson enterprise to new heights. Inglis Drever won last winter’s inaugural Order Of Merit and with it £250,000 for connections and stable staff But there have been local problems.

“I’ve had six arson attacks in the past six years,” laments Johnson.“I think it’s because things are going well and people are jealous.” Even so, he can’t stop expanding, with plans for a new flat yard on a 140-acre farm up the mad. “It’s going to be palatial, like Ballydoyle,” he predicts.

With the foundations laid this summer, the flat racing future for Howard Johnson and his billionaire patron looks bright, too. H&H

HORSE & HOUND 15 SEPTEMBER 2005

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