Fulke Johnson Houghton obituary: a trainer of champions and Classic winners and part of a family steeped in racing

Fulke Johnson Houghton, who has died aged 84, was a multiple Classic-winning trainer who won more than 1,200 races during his 46 years as a licence-holder.

His best horses were European champion Habitat, dual Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Rose Bowl, and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes victor Ile De Bourbon.

Johnson Houghton was champion trainer in Ireland twice thanks to the Irish Derby victories of the brothers Ribocco and Ribero, who both triumphed in the St Leger as well.

The other stars he trained at Woodway stables in Blewbury included champion miler Romulus, top two-year-old Ribofilio and sprinter Double Form.

Born at Malpas, Cheshire on May 9, 1940, Richard Fulke Johnson Houghton had a distinguished racing pedigree. His father Gordon had trained horses before the war and his mother Helen was the twin sister of Fulke Walwyn.

Gordon Johnson Houghton resumed his training career in 1946 at Woodway stables in Blewbury, which at the time was in Berkshire, and he was among the most promising trainers in Britain when tragedy struck in January 1952.

During a day's hunting, the family was hacking along a road when the noise of an oncoming lorry caused the trainer's horse to shy and throw him under the lorry, killing him instantly in front of his wife, daughter and son, who was only 11.

Helen Johnson Houghton took over as trainer but had to operate under a series of male nominees because the Jockey Club still refused to grant trainers' licences to women. The yard flourished and she became the first woman to train a British Classic winner when Gilles De Retz caused a 50-1 shock in the 2,000 Guineas in 1956.

The nominal trainers at Woodway included her cousin and assistant Peter Walwyn, and when he departed to set up on his own, 20-year-old Fulke became the new licence-holder in 1961.

Educated at Eton, he had ridden one winner as an amateur on the Flat, and worked for trainers John Goldsmith at Aston Tirrold and Jack Cunnington at Chantilly. His first official winner was Whimsical at Hurst Park in April 1961, ridden by Lester Piggott. His formidable mother, who died in 2012 aged 102, continued to run the yard but Fulke gradually became the trainer in fact, not just in name.

In 1964 he married Gaie, a daughter of his mentor John Goldsmith, and they had two children, Gordon and Eve.

The stable's main patron was US gold and platinum tycoon Charles Engelhard, who had just entered British racing when he owned Europe's champion miler Romulus in 1962. By Ribot, Romulus was runner-up in the 2,000 Guineas but improved to win the Sussex Stakes by four lengths, added the Hungerford Stakes and, in the space of eight days, triumphed in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Prix du Moulin.

Fulke Johnson Houghton with Tout Seul after victory in the 2002 DewhurstCredit: Edward Whitaker

Engelhard's patronage was crucial because all the trainer's best horses were owned by him or bred by his widow. The stable's other Engelhard stars included fast two-year-olds Tin King and Falcon, and dual Classic-winning brothers Ribocco and Ribero. They were temperamental sons of Ribot who responded to Lester Piggott's sympathetic handling, and their careers were remarkably similar.

Ribocco won the Observer Gold Cup (now Futurity) at Doncaster in 1966 and finished second to Royal Palace in the 1967 Derby. He then won the Irish Derby and the St Leger, and was beaten less than half a length into third place in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

His year-younger brother Ribero scored an upset victory over Sir Ivor in the 1968 Irish Derby, and Piggott then coaxed him into winning the St Leger by a short head. At the time the Irish Derby was so much more valuable than any other race in Ireland that that prize alone made Johnson Houghton champion trainer there twice.

Ribofilio, yet another son of Ribot owned by Engelhard, was champion two-year-old for the yard in 1968 after winning the Champagne and Dewhurst Stakes. He started favourite for four Classics in 1969 but finished tailed off in the 2,000 Guineas (despite a negative dope test, the trainer was convinced he had been nobbled) and fifth in the Derby. He redeemed himself slightly by finishing second in the Irish Derby and the St Leger.

Habitat, Johnson Houghton's second champion miler, had a racing career that lasted less than six months, but was the best horse he ever trained and the top-rated horse in Europe in 1969.

Another of Engelhard's US-breds, he won the Lockinge Stakes, Prix Quincey and Goodwood Mile before crowning his career with a brilliant victory under Piggott in the Prix du Moulin on Arc day. He became an outstanding sire.

Engelhard died in 1971 aged only 54, soon after winning the Triple Crown with Nijinsky, and it was his widow Jane who bred and owned Rose Bowl, the best filly ever trained at Woodway.

Habitat's daughter was unlucky in the 1975 1,000 Guineas, being denied a clear run and finishing on the bridle in fourth place. She won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and proved herself Europe's top filly by beating Allez France into second place in the Champion Stakes. As a four-year-old Rose Bowl again showed her best form in the autumn, winning the Queen Elizabeth II again and coming second in the Champion Stakes.

Hot Grove (right) is edged out in the 1977 Derby by Lester Piggott and The Minstrel

The trainer's second Derby runner-up Hot Grove won the Chester Vase in 1977 and ran the race of his life to be beaten only a neck by The Minstrel at Epsom. He later won the St Simon and Westbury Stakes.

Charles Engelhard's death had been a huge setback for the yard and the last notable product of his racing and breeding empire was Rose Bowl's half-brother Ile De Bourbon, a dual champion trained at Woodway.

Bred by Engelhard's widow and owned in partnership by his former European racing manager David McCall, Sir Philip Oppenheimer, the trainer and the trainer's mother, Ile De Bourbon was slow to mature, but in 1978 he won the King Edward VII Stakes and proved himself the best three-year-old in Europe with a decisive victory in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Nijinsky's son then won the Geoffrey Freer Stakes but flopped when odds-on for the St Leger. He was the top older horse of 1979 by virtue of his stroll in the Coronation Cup.

Among the trainer's sprinters, the filly Parsimony landed the July Cup in 1972, and Habitat's son Double Form took the King's Stand Stakes, Haydock Sprint Cup and Prix de l'Abbaye in 1979.

Fulke Johnson Houghton with his daughter at her stables in Blewbury, Oxfordshire in 2017Credit: Steve Davies

The Aga Khan became Johnson Houghton's main owner, and in the mid-1980s they had big-race winners Khairpour, Borushka, Kirmann and St Leger runner-up Baynoun.

However, the Aga Khan sent him no more yearlings after 1987 and that led to a sharp decline in his fortunes. After 1989 his only Flat Pattern winner was Tout Seul in the Dewhurst Stakes in 2002.

He trained very few jumpers and by far the best of them was Ruling, third in the Champion Hurdle in both 1991 (when he was the champion novice hurdler) and 1992.

Johnson Houghton retired at the end of 2006 and handed over his string to his daughter Eve. His son Gordon had trained briefly at Newmarket before becoming an equine therapist.

His wife Gaie was joint-champion lady rider in 1979 and bred both Accidental Agent, named after her father and winner of the Queen Anne Stakes in 2018, and Mohaather, who took the Sussex Stakes in 2020.

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