Eve Johnson Houghton

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.