Mark Johnston, 62, is a racehorse trainer who found fame in 2009 when he became the first Flat trainer to produce more than 200 winners in a season. He has since repeated this feat eight times, having trained more than 100 British winners for 28 consecutive seasons, totalling some 4,600 wins. Today, he lives in Middleham, in the Yorkshire Dales, with his wife, Deirdre.
How did your childhood influence your attitude to money?
We lived in a council house in East Kilbride and, true or not, thought we were better off than everybody else in the street. My father was my biggest influence in a desire to make money. As a hotel night porter, he’d come home laden with food, saying, “Who needs to be a king when you can live like a king?”
I wasn’t a very good student, I had a lot of time off school and went with my father to auctions. At seven, I bid for some ladders, everybody laughing. I enjoyed that.
At university, I worked as a car auctioneer selling bangers, which stood me in great stead for horse auctions. I’d resell stuff my father bought if it lay around unused. A family joke was the week my sister’s baby moved out of her cot, I took it to Lanark Sales.
What were your first jobs?
A milk round my father would wake me up for: great fun jumping in and out of moving vans with bottles of milk; no health, safety or child-labour rules in those days.
He gave me the interest in horses. I’d stand outside the bookies while he put bets on. If it was raining, he’d sneak me in under the counter. He started buying thoroughbreds cheaply and bred them unsuccessfully – never bred or owned a winner – so taught me how not to do it.
Graduating in 1983, I was a vet for three and a half years, mainly working with horses, on £6,500 a year. Unable to get jobs in racing, I saw a stable for sale in Lincolnshire for £90,000. It was a repossession, wild and overgrown, and we bought it for £50,000.
What does your business do?
I’m a horse trainer and I buy horses at sales to sell on to owners. We make our money from providing the training service to owners: it’s a hotel for horses.
Have you invested in property?
All our investments are in property. We have 135 staff in a village, so we have to provide accommodation. Over 15 to 20 years, we’ve bought 25 properties within the company and personally, which are leased to the company and sublet to staff.
Do you have a pension?
We recently cashed in our pensions, despite everybody telling you how tax efficient they are. I don’t like it if the Government can move the goalposts and alter my wealth without my input. I prefer investments I can see.
