Trainers

Formerly an accomplished amateur jockey, Eve Johnson Houghton is the fourth member of her family to train at Woodway Stables in Blewbury, Oxfordshire. Her grandmother, Helen – the twin sister of legendary trainer Fulke Walwyn – bought the family yard in 1945 and took over the training licence, albeit unofficially, from her husband, Gordon, following his untimely death in 1952. In 1961, Helen Johnson Houghton was succeeded by her 20-year-old son, Fulke, who went on to hold the licence for 46 years and saddle over 1,200 winners before his daughter Eve took over in February 2007. Thus, it would be fair to say that Eve Johnson Houghton has an illustrious racing pedigree.

Indeed, Eve wasted little time in opening her account in her own right, winning with just her sixth runner, 16/1 chance Robustian, who got up close home to win by a head in a mile handicap at Pontefract on April 10, 2007. She said afterwards, “I did a lot of shouting and I’m wildly excited.” The 2007 Flat season, as a whole, yielded 22 winners, including her first at Listed level, Judd Street in the Rous Stakes

A trainer with an eye for a bargain, Eve Johnson Houghton has continued to thrive ever since, enjoying her best season, numerically, in 2024, when she saddled 56 winners from 486 runners, at a strike rate of 12%. In 2025, so far, she has already amassed £984,516 in total prize money, her highest figure to date, and currently lies twenty-eighth in the Flat Trainers’ Championship.

At the last count, Johnson Houghton had 22 Pattern and Listed winners to her name, notably including two at the highest, Group 1 level. At Royal Ascot in 2018, she saddled Accidental Agent to win the Queen Anne Stakes and, much more recently, in September 2025, Zavateri to win the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh. The unbeaten son of Without Parole is 3/1 join-favourite for the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October 2025 and a 14/1 chance for the 2,000 Guineas in May 2026.

Contact and Social –

https://www.johnsonhoughton.com/

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Educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, Ed Walker served a lengthy apprentice, working in Australia, France and at home in England, most recently as assistant trainer to Luca Cumani in Newmarket, with whom he spent four years. He initially began training in his own right in a rented, 24-box yard at St. Gatien Cottage Stables on Vicarage Road, Newmarket in October 2010, from whence he sent out his first winner, Riggins, in the Listed Hyde Stakes at Kempton on November 27, 2010. Walker relocated, briefly, to Grange House Stables, on Hamilton Road, in December 2012 and, again, to Warren Place, on Moulton Road, in December 2013, before finally settling at his current base, Kingsdown Stables in Upper Lambourn, Berkshire, three years later.

Although he has had the occasional runner ‘over the sticks’, Walker is overwhelming a Flat trainer and, it that sphere, enjoyed his most successful season, numerically, in 2024, when he saddled 74 winners from 440 runners, at a strike rate of 17%. In 2025, so far, he has added another 50 winners to his career tally on British soil, which currently stands at 672, and already amassed £1.69 million in total prize money, making it his most successful season in financial terms. He currently lies twelfth in the 2025 Flat Trainers’ Championship.

At the time of writing, Walker has saddled a total of 63 Pattern and Listed winners at home abroad. His career tally includes four Group 1 victories, Makarova in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 2024, Dreamloper in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and the Prix d’Ispahan, both in 2022, and Starman in the July Cup at Newmarket in 2021. At the time of writing, his recent Lowther Stakes winner, Royal Fixation, is well-fancied for the Group1 Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket and a 20/1 chance for the 1,000 Guineas back at ‘Headquarters in May 2026.

Contact and Social Links:

website: https://www.edwalkerracing.com/home.htm

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Contact: ed@edwalkerracing.com

 

Formerly a prolific point-to-point jockey, with around 150 winners to his name, Chris Gordon initially trained point-to-pointers, privately, for Simon Tindall, alongside his wife, Jenny. However, after seven successful years – and, ironically, on the eve of the deepest recession in Britain since World War II – the pair borrowed £40,000 and began renting Morestead Farm, near Winchester, Hampshire, following the departure of the previous occupant, Brendan Powell.

Gordon began with just a handful of horses, but made an also immediate impact when just his second runner, Quarrymount, won a handicap hurdle at Fontwell on November 9, 2007. He saddled just four winners in his inaugural season, but steadily increased his seasonal tally and, in 2013, with Tindall as guarantor, purchased the house and stables at Morestead Farm.

Gordon holds a dual-purpose licence, but his emphasis is on National Hunt racing. Indeed, at the time of writing, he is enjoying his best season ever on the Flat, with three winners from 27 runners, at a strike rate of 11%, and £24,234 in total prize money. By contrast, under National Hunt Rules, his best season, numerically and financially, came in 2022/23, when he saddled 52 winners from 235 runners, at a strike rate of 22%, and collected £660,720 in prize money.

That season, Gordon enjoyed his biggest single payday, so far, when Aucunrisque made all to win the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury on February 11, 2023. The previous February, Aucunrisque had also won the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton to give Gordon his second success in the prestigious Grade 2 contest after Highway One O Two two years previously. More recently, Gordon also saddled the ill-fated Our Champ to a ready, 3¾-length victory in the Swinton Handicap Hurdle at Haydock on May 10, 2025; the seven-year-old subsequently developed lung cancer and was humanely euthanised the following August.

Contact and Social Details:

website: https://www.chrisgordonracing.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/chrisgordonracing/?locale=en_GB

https://x.com/Chrisgordonrac1

 

 

Oliver ‘Ollie’ Sangster is the grandson of the late Robert Sangster, a legendary owner and breeder who, alongside John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien, effectively changed the face of thoroughbred horse racing in the seventies. In 1984, Robert Sangster purchased the 2,000-acre Manton Estate, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, for a reported £10 million. The majority of the estate, including all the gallops, was bought by former Newmarket trainer Martyn Meade in 2017, but it was at the Redpost Yard, Manton House that Ollie Sangster embarked on his training career in 2023.

Indeed, Sangster, 26, only narrowly missed out on a winner with his very first runner when the three-year-old Cruise was beaten just half a length, having repeatedly been denied a clear run, at Kempton Park on April 1, 2023. Nevertheless, he saddled his first winner, The Thunderer, at Wolverhampton on April 10, 2023 and in his first year, so far, has increased his tally to 10 winners from 52 runners, at a strike rate of 19%. His biggest winner to date was the two-year-old filly Shumwari, who, on July 27, 2023, beat subsequent Moyglare Stud Stakes winner – and current ante-post favourite for the 1,000 Guineas – Fallen Angel in the Listed European Bloodstock News EBF Star Stakes at Sandown Park.

Ollie Sangster may be a new name on the training roster, but he served a lengthy apprenticeship and learnt his trade from some of the best in the business. He joined Lambourn trainer Charles Hills as pupil assistant more or less straight out of school and subsequently spent two years – ‘probably my most formative time’, according to Sangster – as assistant trainer to Wesley Ward in America. On his return to home soil, he spent a year as assistant to Hugo Palmer in Newmarket and another two as assistant to Joseph O’Brien in Ireland before setting up on his own. In 2025 said he was elated to place 2nd (with Flight) and 3rd (Simmering) in the 1000 Guineas with big priced winners (28-1 and 33-1 respectively). The future clearly holds a lot of promise!

 

Website: https://www.olliesangsterracing.com/ 

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Email: ollie@olliesangsterracing.com