Mark Johnston: from 'a pain in the butt' to most successful trainer of all time

We can only assume it takes a lot of hard graft to pass 4,000 winners as a licensed trainer, and a working lifetime of application and dedication to become the most successful trainer of all time in Britain. To invoke the motto of Kingsley House Stables, a chap would surely have to be "always trying" for more than 30 years to achieve such feats.

It might seem safe to assume that the individual who last year surpassed the record of 4,193, to become the statistically indisputable greatest of all time, began life with a diligence beyond the call of duty. If he were born in Scotland, there's every chance he would have been imbued with a textbook Protestant work ethic and have over-achieved at every turn on his earnest way to the top.

Alternatively, he could have been Mark Johnston.