2026

Charlie Johnston

admin October 15, 2026

Based at Kingsley Park Stables in Middleham, North Yorkshire, Charlie Johnston is the elder son of Mark Johnston who, on August 23, 2018 became the most prolific trainer in British racing history. Johnston Jnr. officially began his training career, alongside his father, in 2022, before taking over the licence in his own right the following year.

In his first season as sole trainer, albeit with his father remaining as his assistant, Johnson enjoyed his most successful campaign so far, saddling 174 winners – just two fewer than the previous season – from 1,261 runners, at a strike rate of 14%, and amassed £2.78 million in prize money. Highlights of his inaugural season in sole charge included saddling Sacred Angel, ridden by Jason Hart, to win the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot and The Gatekeeper, ridden by recently-retired stable jockey Joe Fanning, in the Balmoral Handicap back at the Berkshire course on British Champions Day.

All told, Johnston already has a total of 15 Listed and Pattern victories to his name at home and abroad, notably including Timeforshowcasing, ridden by Jack Mitchell, in the Group 2 German 1,000 Guineas at Dusseldorf in May 2026. The Showcasing filly also came within a whisker of becoming his first Group 1 winner when beaten a nose by subsequent Irish Champion Stakes winner Hotazhell in the Bayerisches Zuchtrennen at Munich two months later.

On home soil, Johnston enjoyed the second-biggest payday of his career (after the Balmoral Handicap) when saddlling Aligh The Stars, ridden by Daniel Muscutt, to win the Northumberland Plate Handicap at Newcastle in June 2026. Interestingly, he has saddled more winners at Newcastle than anywhere else, closing followed by Wolverhampton, Chelmsford, Kempton, Southwell and Lingfield, so his runners on all-weather surfaces are clearly worth noting, as are those on turf at Bath and Brighton, where he has his highest strike rates.

Anthony Honeyball

admin October 15, 2026

Formerly an amateur and conditional jockey, with 45 winners to his name under Rules, Anthony Honeyball retired from the saddle at the age of 26 to embark on his training career. He saddled his first winner, Classic Fair, ridden by Sam Thomas in a mares’ only maiden hurdle at Taunton on December 18, 2006. In 2012, Honeyball moved to his current base, Potwell Farm in Mosterton, near Beaminster, West Dorset, which he bought five years later.

Honeyball enjoyed the most successful season of his training career, so far, in 2025/26, when he saddled 52 winners from 298 runners, at a strike rate of 18%, and amassed nearly £932,000 in prize money. Highlights included victories for Gustavian in the Badger Beers Handicap Chase at Wincanton and Dartmoor Pirate in the Great Yorkshire Chase at Doncaster, both of whom were ridden by Rex Dingle.

Success at the highest level has so far proved elusive but, at the time of writing, Honeyball has two Grade 2 victories to his name, courtesy of Midnight Tune in the Jane Seymour Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown in 2018 and Sam Brown in the Altcar Novices’ Chase at Haydock in 2020, both of whom were ridden by Aidan Coleman. Indeed, Sam Brown, who was officially rated 159 over fences at his peak, proved to be an excellent money-spinner for the yard, winning nine of his 36 races and over £273,000 in prize money prior to his retirement, at the age of 14, in March 2026. Honeyball described the Black Sam Bellamy gelding as ” a rock-solid chaser, a great competitor, battle-hardened and one of the best I’ve had…”.

In 2026/27, so far, Honeyball has saddled 12 winners from 28 runners, at a strike rate of 22%, and lies on the cusp of the top 10 in the trainers’ championship table. Steeplechasers Gore Point, who is still a novice, and Breaking Cover have been responsible for eight wins between them.

Hugo Palmer

admin October 1, 2026

Hugo Palmer began training in his own right at Kremlin Cottage Stables in Newmarket, Suffolk in 2011 with a string of 11 cheaply-bought, syndicated horses. He saddled his first winner, Steady The Buffs, ridden by Adam Beschizza, in a two-year-old maiden auction stakes race at Brighton on May 9, 2011. Palmer broke into double figures for the season for the first time in 2013, but thereafter steadily increased his seasonal tally, peaking with 87 winners from 508 runners in 2018, at a strike rate of 17%.

Palmer enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2015, saddling Covert Love to Group 1 wins in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh and the Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp and amassing over £1 million in prize money in a season for the first time. The following season, he saddled his first and, so far, only British Classic winner, Galileo Gold, in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. The Paco Boy colt was beaten in the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh, but resumed winning ways in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

On August 8, 2021, Palmer added another Group 1 winner to his carry tally, Ebro River, ridden by Shane Foley, in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh. The following March, he was recruited by former England footballer to replace the previous incumbent, Tom Dascombe, at Manor House Stables, his training establishment in Malpas, Cheshire. From his new base, Palmer saddled a winner with his very first runner, Noman, in a mile-and-a-half handicap at Leicester in April 1, 2022 and, in so doing, reached the landmark of 500 career winners.

Since making the move from Newmarket, Palmer has continued to thrive, saddling a further 10 Pattern winners at home and abroad. Most notably, he sent out the Too Darn Hot colt Glacius to win the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Stakes at Saratoga, New York on August 8, 2026.

Eve Johnson Houghton

admin October 1, 2026

Based at Woodway Stables, near Blewbury, Oxfordshire, Eve Johnson Houghton is the daughter of the late Fulke Johnson Houghton, who sent out over 1,200 winners – including the 1978

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, Ile De Bourbon – from the family yard between 1961 and 2007. Formery an accomplished amateur rider, Johnson Houghton became assistant trainer to her father in 2000 and took over the training licence following his retirement at the end of 2006.

Starting with a string of fewer than 20 horses, Eve Johnson Houghton saddled her first winner as a trainer in her own right, Robustian, ridden by Steve Carson, in a mile handicap at Pontefract on April 10, 2007. Her inugural season yielded 22 winners, but Johnson Houghton enjoyed her most successful campaign, numerically, in 2024, when she saddled 56 winners from 486 runners, at a strike rate of 12%.

At the time of writing, Johnson Houghton has saddled two Group 1 winners, the home-bred Accidental Agent, who sprang a 33/1 surprise when winning the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2018, and Zavateri, who won the National Stakes at the Curragh in 2025. Other notable winners for the yard include the cheaply-bought juveniles Chipotle, who won the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Two Year Old Trophy at Redcar in 2021, and Havana Hurricane, who won the Windsor Castle Stakes, again, in 2025, despite costing less than 20,000 guineas between them.

More recently, the Lucky Vega colt Night In Vegas has proved an excellent money-spinner, justifying favourtism in both the £200,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes at Newmarket and Weatherbys £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes at Doncaster, in August and September 2026, respectively, collectively worth nearly £374,000 to winning connections. He holds potentially lucrative late-season entries, so may not be finished yet.

David O’Meara

admin October 1, 2026

Nowadays based at Willow Farm in Upper Hemsley, near York, North Yorkshire, David O’Meara was formerly a successful National Hunt jockey, notably winning the Fox Hunters’ Chase, over the Grand National fences at Aintree, on Bells Life, trained by Philip Hobbs, in 2000. He quit the saddle in 2008, initially to set up a livery yard at Great Habton, near Malton, North Yorkshire, alongside former weighing-room colleague Anthony Ross.

Less than rwo years later, though, O’Meara took over the training licence at Arthington Barn Stables in Nawton, North Yorkshire and saddled his first winner, Simple Jim, ridden by Silvestre De Sousa, in a handicap at Redcar on June 19, 2010. Fast forward less than a decade and O’Meara reached the landmark of 1,000 career winners, under both codes, courtesy of Betsy Trotter, ridden by Harrison Shaw, in a fillies’ handicap at Wolverhampton on October 5, 2019. The following sunmer, he reached the same landmark on the Flat, alone, when Sudona, ridden by Daniel Tudhope, justified favouritism in a handicap at Pontefract on July 7, 2020.

O’Meara saddled 100 winners in a season for the first time in 2013 and went on to repeat that feat for the next 11 seasons running. Indeed, on the last occasion he did so, in 2024, he enjoyed his most successful season so far, financially, amassing over £2.3 million in prize money. At the time of writing, he has saddled seven Group 1 winners at home and abroad, the first of which was G Force, ridden by Daniel Tudhope, in the Sprint Cup at Haydock in 2014 and the last Estrange, also ridden by Tudhope, in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in 2026. A lightly-raced five-year-old mare, Estrange has, so far, won six of her nine starts for O’Meara and amassed just shy of £700,000 in prise money.

Joseph Patrick O’Brien

admin July 4, 2026

Born in County Tipperary on May 23, 1993, Joseph Patrick O’Brien is the eldest son of perennial Irish Champion Flat Trainer Aidan O’Brien. Before taking out a training licence on June 3, 2016, he was a two-time Irish champion jockey, in 2012 and 2013, on the latter occasion with a record 126 winners. On the opposite side of the Irish Sea, he won the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby on Camelot, trained by his father, in 2012 and the Derby, again, on Australia, also trained by O’Brien Snr., in 2014.

Based at Owning Hill, near Piltown, County Kilkenny, Joseph O’Brien made a flying start to his training career, saddling his first winner, Justice Frederick, ridden by his younger brother Donnacha, in a seven-furlong maiden at Gowran Park on June 6, 2016, just three days after obtaining his training licence. He also wasted little time in chalking up his first Group 1 winner, Intricately, again ridden by Donnacha O’Brien, in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh on September 11, 2016.

O’Brien has since added another 44 Group 1 and Grade 1 victories to his career tally. On the Flat, highlights include winning the Melbourne Cup twice, with Rekindling in 2017 and Twilight Payment in 2020, the Irish Derby with Latrobe in 2018, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot with State Of Rest in 2022 and the Oaks with Thundering On in 2026. Under National Hunt Rules, his winners at the highest level include Banbridge in the King George VI Chase at Kempton in 2024 and Home By The Lee in the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2026.

On August 6, 2022, O’Brien reached the landmark of 1,000 career winners as a trainer when Al Riffa won a maiden at the Currgh. He has since saddled the same horse to win three Group 1 races, including the Irish St. Leger, back at the Curragh, in 2025.