The numbers back up what those big-day wins suggest. Johnston has trained 443 career winners in total, and this season alone he has sent out 128 winners from 966 runners — roughly 1 in every 8 races — at a 13% win rate. What makes that figure more striking is where it has come from: just twelve months ago, his win rate sat at 9%. That jump from 9% to 13% in a single season is not a blip. It suggests a yard that is genuinely improving, sharpening up, and learning how to place horses in races they can win.
His most trusted ally in the saddle is jockey Joe Fanning, and together they have built one of the more productive partnerships in training. Fanning has ridden 196 horses for Johnston and come home in front on 26 of them — again, roughly 1 in every 8, which matches Johnston's yard average almost exactly. That kind of consistency between trainer and jockey matters; it means they are reading horses and races the same way.
One detail worth noting for anyone tempted to follow Johnston's horses: he does particularly well when the ground turns wet. On very muddy, heavy ground, his horses have won 2 from 8 races — a 25% win rate, or 1 in every 4. That is double his usual output. Some yards just have horses that handle soft ground well, and Johnston's clearly is one of them.
The standout individual partnership of his career so far is with a horse called Espanita, who has won 1 of their 4 races together. That might sound modest, but in top-level racing, finding a horse you can win a single big race with is something many trainers never manage. Johnston has found several. At only three years into the job, the trajectory here is one of the more interesting stories in British racing right now.
| Course | Races | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolverhampton | 89 | 9 | 10.1% |
| Newcastle | 77 | 16 | 20.8% |
| Kempton Park | 70 | 5 | 7.1% |
| chelmsford | 66 | 12 | 18.2% |
| Newmarket | 64 | 8 | 12.5% |
| Southwell | 62 | 6 | 9.7% |
| Lingfield Park | 57 | 6 | 10.5% |
| Musselburgh | 39 | 9 | 23.1% |
| Goodwood | 36 | 3 | 8.3% |
| Hamilton Park | 33 | 6 | 18.2% |
| Beverley | 32 | 7 | 21.9% |
| Doncaster | 32 | 5 | 15.6% |
| Chester | 28 | 3 | 10.7% |
| Haydock Park | 27 | 7 | 25.9% |
| York | 25 | 0 | 0% |
| Ripon | 21 | 1 | 4.8% |
| Redcar | 20 | 5 | 25% |
| Ascot | 20 | 0 | 0% |
| Catterick Bridge | 18 | 1 | 5.6% |
| Pontefract | 17 | 3 | 17.6% |
| Nottingham | 17 | 0 | 0% |
| Thirsk | 16 | 2 | 12.5% |
| Leicester | 15 | 2 | 13.3% |
| Ayr | 13 | 1 | 7.7% |
| Carlisle | 11 | 2 | 18.2% |
| Great Yarmouth | 9 | 2 | 22.2% |
| Wetherby | 8 | 2 | 25% |
| Sandown Park | 8 | 0 | 0% |
| Windsor | 7 | 1 | 14.3% |
| Epsom Downs | 7 | 0 | 0% |
| Bath | 6 | 2 | 33.3% |
| Salisbury | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| Newbury | 3 | 1 | 33.3% |
| Chepstow | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| The Curragh | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Brighton | 3 | 0 | 0% |