LIGHT-HEARTED LARRIKIN OR SORE LOSER? You be the judge!

OUTSPOKEN English trainer, Mark Johnston, has defended his perceived attack on Australian invaders, Takeover Target and Scenic Blast, after their Royal Ascot wins the past two years and claimed that he was actually full of praise for the talents of our trainers.

Johnston defended his comments in another article on his web-site entitled: ‘Aussie Rules,’ in which he wrote: “Oh dear, I’ve done it again, I’ve upset some Australians. Never mind, you have to admit, they are easily upset.

 

“ I think you all know that I’m not one of the ‘smoking syringe’ theorists and that I, generally, believe that British racing is not only the ‘cleanest’ racing in the world but it is, in my opinion, one of the cleanest sports.

 

“However, I still can’t help but wonder how it is possible to get a son of a moderate National Hunt sire, which in turn is a son of Saddler’s Wells, to look like a cross between Alan Wells and a Quarter Horse and to win a Group 1 race over five furlongs. I suppose we can only conclude that they must be much better trainers.” (Alan Wells won gold in the 100m at the 1980 Olympics).

“I know it wasn’t that difficult to figure out what I was talking about but I didn’t specifically refer to any horse or trainer and, although I was well aware that I was going to stir things up and promote a debate, I can’t see that I questioned the ability of any trainer or Australian trainers in general,” Johnston said.

“Quite the contrary, I raised the possibility that they may be better trainers as they seem to be able to take horses which would, without any shadow of a doubt, be considered as potential middle-distance horses, or even stayers, in Britain and turn them into Group 1 winning sprinters.

“Should we not now ask ourselves how they do it? I suspect most British trainers are asking themselves exactly that but I’m the only one willing to write it down.

“However, my writings were reported by Graham Cunningham of Betfair as being ‘snide hints’ and this was picked up by Brendan Cormick of The Australian, who claimed that I had ‘taken another swipe at the integrity of Australian trainers’ and that I had ‘questioned the ability of Perth trainer Dan Morton’. Did I?

“I well remember when I first came to Middleham, that a fellow trainer was reported to have said, ‘He must be giving them something. You can’t get three-year-old fillies as big as that naturally.’

“The horse in question was actually a two-year-old but all I was giving her was more food and more work than he would have. I also know well that, given the same horse, a trainer like Dandy Nicholls will bring it back to a much shorter distance than I would. These differences are worthy subjects for debate in themselves but, if the difference between Australasian horses and European horses, in terms of size, weight and racing distance, proved to be more than can be explained by differences in nutrition or training methods, then all other possible reasons, including medication, should also be debated.

“Whether as a result of, or in spite of, the controversy surrounding Takeover Target, some rules on the use of anabolic steroids have been tightened but there is little doubt that their use was, at least until recent years, more widespread in Australia, Asia and America than in Europe.

“It is also debatable whether the use of anabolic steroids prior to training, during ‘spelling’, or well in advance of a race, can alter performance, but I believe it can, if only by helping get the animal into the routine of eating more and/or working harder, and I think size, weight, and muscle bulk are all legitimate subjects for debate and conjecture in equine athletics just as they are in human athletics.”

‘THE CRITICS JUST WON’T GO AWAY’

In yet another article on his web-site last month, Johnston wrote: “I saw William Huntingdon at Sandown and he drew my attention to yet another Australian article about me which, in turn, referred to a letter from Grant Prichard-Gordon to the Racing Post on the same subject. They just won’t go away, will they?

“Firstly, Warwick Barr (on racenet.com.au) refers to me as a whinging pom (I thought ‘poms’ were specifically English) and then Prichard-Gordon accuses me of ‘sour grapes’ and suggests that I am against international competition and guilty of double standards on drug rules.

“I would suggest that they are both guilty of cherry-picking small parts of what I have said. They, like most others, have clearly overlooked the fact that my comments on Takeover Target last year came in a piece supporting Ascot’s decision to subsidise foreign runners when some of my colleagues were criticising that policy.


“I did, however, say that, if foreign horses were to be invited, then they, and their trainers, must be subject to exactly the same rules as us and that means that you cannot administer anabolic steroids to your horse at any time while it is under your care, regardless of whether or not those drugs are detectable on race day. I stand by what I said.

“On Scenic Blast (which I didn’t refer to by name) they choose to take my words on ‘second rate National Hunt’ sires and horses who ‘look like a cross between Alan Wells and a quarter-horse’ literally but assume that my statement that ‘we can only conclude that they must be better trainers’ is tongue-in-cheek or sarcasm.

“Frankly, they are all suffering from severe sense-of-humor failure. They should either take the whole piece literally or accept it all as light-hearted banter. Sadly, they are incapable of that,” Johnston suggested.

Whether he was taken out of context or largely misunderstood most horse racing lovers from Down Under would suggest that the outspoken British trainer should find the time to spend a day or two at the cricket and experience the feeling of what it’s like to have a win over the Aussies.

You might remember - as forgettable as it was - that Johnston brought the highly-rated English stayer, Double Trigger, to Australia in 1995 for a tilt at the Melbourne Cup. It started a $4.60 favorite and finished a dismal 17th (it was lucky to beat the Clerk of the Course home).

Perhaps Johnston needs to build a bridge over that failure. In themeantime might we suggest the one thing he did get right was the admission that: "Australians must be much better trainers."