After running his heart out, Johny Johny is pictured at Te Rapa with strapper Michelle Mateara and c“He’s the opposite on the ground though; he’s an absolute gentleman and I love him to bits.”
Johny Johny has yet to match the deeds of high-profile NZB Ready to Run Sale contemporaries such as Lucky Sweynesse and Mr Brightside, but in the eyes of those closest to him, that takes nothing away from what he has achieved.
The admiration was clear to see at Te Rapa last Saturday after the nuggety six-year-old had taken his record to 10 wins from 17 starts with a typically gutsy win in the Gr. 3 Sweynesse Stakes. Knocked down for what is now a bargain $12,500 at the 2019 Ready to Run Sale, Johny Johny has banked almost $250,000 for his owners, Cambridge training partners Tim and Margaret Carter and their son, bloodstock auctioneer and agent Morgan.
A fourth member of that particular mutual admiration group is stable apprentice Jim Chung, who completed a hat-trick on the Charm Spirit gelding after open handicap wins during September and October over the same Te Rapa 1200m course. Both times Johny Johny benefitted from the Hong Kong-born 27-year-old’s apprentice claim, however there was no such advantage under Saturday’s weight-for-age conditions, having to carry 58.5kg every step of the way.
“I’m just so thrilled for Jimmy and the horse, they both deserve this,” enthused Margaret Carter after the pair had been given no peace in front and dug deep to hold off their rivals by a head.
Tim and Margaret Carter have been together since the late 1980s, training in partnership apart from several years when Tim was the sole licence-holder.
Margaret began in racing as an apprentice jockey, riding 16 winners, while her husband’s first sporting love was rugby. He was a flanker representing Hawke’s Bay in nearly 80 games through the 1970s as well as playing 17 games for the Maori All Blacks.
The couple have mixed trading with a small racing team, enjoying their share of success up to the highest level, headed by 2010 Gr. 1 Telegraph winner Vonusti and Battle Time, winner of the 2016 Gr. 2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile and runner-up in the previous year’s Gr. 1 NZ 2000 Guineas.
“We turned down big money for Johny when he was younger, but we just couldn’t let him go,” Margaret Carter said amongst a flood of congratulations at the Te Rapa winner’s stall.
“I ride him in his trackwork and man, he’s hard work, but everyone at the track looks out for us and we get the job done. He’s the opposite on the ground though; he’s an absolute gentleman and I love him to bits.
“This is great for Jimmy too, he’s a neat young man who has worked so hard to become a successful jockey. We put our trust in him and kept him on the horse even though he couldn’t claim, so now to see him get his first black-type win, it’s fantastic!”
An interesting statistic in Johny Johny’s race record is that while he has won 10 times, he has not been placed second or third in his other seven starts. And while he has shown a definite preference for left-handed tracks, which includes three wins from six starts at Te Rapa, he has also won three times right-handed.
That includes wins over 1100 and 1200m at Pukekohe, where his major summer target, the $450,000 Gr. 1 Sistema Railway, will be contested on New Year’s Day.
Johny Johny is a member of a family that Hunterville couple Christopher and Susanna Grace have enjoyed immense success with, both on the track and in the sale-ring. The most celebrated member of the family to have worn the Graces’ emerald green, yellow and white racing colours is Shillelagh, a Savabeel mare who won the Gr. 1 Cantala and Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington.
Her lesser-winning sister Galway is the dam of Johny Johny as well as three older progeny who outshone their pint-sized sibling when they took their turn in the Karaka sale-ring. In contrast to the $12,500 he fetched, all three made six figures, the best of which was the $170,000 Sydney trainer John O’Shea bid for a full-brother named Kirwan’s Lane, who won 11 races up to Group Two level in New South Wales for stakes of more than A$1.8 million.
Eight two-year-olds from the final New Zealand crop of former Windsor Park Sud shuttle sire Charm Spirit are catalogued for the 2023 NZB Ready to Run Sale at Karaka on November 22 and 23. Video footage of last week’s Ready to Run Sale Breeze-Ups can be viewed at www.nzb.co.nz
