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Mark Johnston's best horses including Attraction and Double Trigger
With Mark Johnston reaching 5,000 winners, John Ingles highlights four of his best horses to have contributed to that total.
MISTER BAILEYS (Timeform rating 123)
Mister Baileys was a very important winner in Mark Johnston’s training career as he provided him not just with his first Group 1 success but also a classic victory in the 1994 2000 Guineas. The cheaply bought colt, who’d cost 10,000 guineas as a foal and then been bought back as a yearling, was the North’s first classic winner since 1977 and the first trained in Middleham since Dante won the 1945 Derby.
He had been a smart two-year-old when successful in three of his five starts, with his two biggest victories notable for being at southern tracks, in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood – a meeting at which Johnston has continued to enjoy plenty of success over the years – and the Royal Lodge Stakes, then run at Ascot.
Looking very much the type to train on, Mister Baileys went to Newmarket without a prep race and, sent off at 16/1 in a field of 23, broke the Rowley Mile track record when holding for a short-head win over Grand Lodge.
Having finished third when held up in the Dante, despite stamina doubts he was given a much more forceful ride in the Derby but after sweeping into a six-length lead rounding Tattenham Corner he failed to last home and wound up fourth behind the Dante winner Erhaab. Mister Baileys was seen out only once more, running a creditable fifth in the Sussex Stakes.
ATTRACTION (125)
Ten years after Mister Baileys, the filly Attraction became Johnston’s second classic winner when successful in the 1000 Guineas. That came after a two-year-old season when she stamped herself as the best filly of her age despite injury halting her season prematurely in July. By then, she had won all five of her starts, notably the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot by three lengths and, even more impressively, the Cherry Hinton Stakes by five.
It looked very much as though remaining over sprint distances would be Attraction’s best chance of further success at three assuming her setbacks at two and less than perfect conformation didn’t get in the way. But as it turned out, Attraction had no trouble staying a mile and she maintained her unbeaten record beyond the 1000 Guineas, becoming the first filly to follow up in the Irish 1000 Guineas and then taking her unbeaten record to eight races in the Coronation Stakes.
It wasn’t until meeting high-class older filly Soviet Song in the Falmouth Stakes that Attraction finally met her match but she ended her three-year-old campaign with another victory in the Sun Chariot Stakes.
Kept in training at four, Attraction sustained an injury when beaten in Hong Kong on her reappearance but her career ended on another high in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.
Johnston has also trained several winning foals out of Attraction, notably Group 2 winner Elarqam and Golden Mile Handicap winner Maydanny.
‘Attraction would be the horse I’m far and away the most proud of because she had conformational issues and soundness issues as a result’ says Johnston. ‘She would be the horse I remember best and had most affection for.’
DOUBLE TRIGGER (123)
Johnston has won the Gold Cup four times, including twice with Royal Rebel in 2001 and 2002 and most recently with Subjectivist in 2021. Subjectivist earned a rating of 130 for his Royal Ascot victory, but injury has since prevented him from challenging the formidable record established in the Cup races by his stable’s first Gold Cup winner Double Trigger.
It was evident from early on that stamina was going to be Double Trigger’s strong suit, with his two wins at two including the Zetland Stakes over a mile and a quarter. In a light three-year-old campaign he finished third in the St Leger before winning the Italian version but it was at four that Double Trigger, an admirably game front runner, really blossomed over long distances.
He took the Sagaro Stakes and Henry II Stakes on the way to the Gold Cup and then completed the ‘stayers’ triple crown’ by winning the Goodwood and Doncaster Cups as well, at Goodwood defeating his younger brother and stablemate Double Eclipse a neck in a memorable race.
While Double Trigger never won the Gold Cup again (though he twice finished runner-up behind Classic Cliché and Kayf Tara), as well as winning the Sagaro and Henry II for a second time, he went on to become the first horse to win three Goodwood Cups and ended his career in 1998 with a third success in the Doncaster Cup.
SHAMARDAL (two-year-old rating 126p)
Shamardal enjoyed his greatest success as a three-year-old for Godolphin and Saeed bin Suroor, winning both of the colts’ classics in France and then the St James’s Palace Stakes before injury ended his racing career.
But he’d also been Timeform’s highest-rated two-year-old in 2004 when unbeaten in three starts for Johnston who has long maintained that the son of Giant’s Causeway is the best horse he has trained. ‘Throughout the time I trained Shamardal, I never considered the opposition because when you’ve got a horse like him the opposition’s of no concern.’
Shamardal began his career with an eight-length win in a maiden at Ayr and followed up with a stylish win in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood from the subsequent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Wilko. That made Shamardal the early ante-post favourite for the 2000 Guineas and his odds shortened considerably after another clear-cut success in the Dewhurst Stakes.
Shamardal was only second choice in the Dewhurst betting behind the Champagne Stakes winner Etlaala but he handled the unusually testing conditions much better than the favourite and, after making the running again as in his earlier races, Shamardal held off the challenge of the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Oratorio to win by two and a half lengths, recording the best timefigure put up by a two-year-old all season.
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