Promising three-year-olds to lead way for northern powerhouse

Mark Johnston is responsible for one of the biggest strings in the country at his Middleham yard, but even such a huge and varied stable is not immune to having to make the best of what they are given.

Johnston used to get plenty of middle-distance types and would turn them into classy middle-distance three-year-olds. Then, in the last couple of seasons, a collection of well-forward two-year-olds switched the stable's focus.

This year it is less obvious where the big-name winners are going to come from, as Johnston explains. "We've been unlucky this year that our best two-year-old, The Last Lion, and a couple of our better three-year-old fillies have been retired," he says. "It's been a pattern over even the last ten years that we've fewer high-class older horses than most stables of our size."