Classic-Winning Trainer Fulke Johnson Houghton Dies at 84

[Wandering Eyes]

Racing has lost one of its true gentlemen with the passing of former leading trainer Fulke Johnson Houghton at the age of 84.

Fulke Johnson Houghton was born into the game as both of his parents were top-class trainers, albeit that his mother had to operate unofficially because the Jockey Club had not yet relented on the licensing of women in the days in which she headed the family's stable at Blewbury in Berkshire.

Fulke Johnson Houghton's father Gordon was already training (in Cheshire) before the outbreak of the Second World War, during which he put his career on ice to serve in the Cheshire Yeomanry, rising to the rank of Major. Once peace had returned, he and his family moved south to Woodway Stables in Blewbury, previously the base of Steve Donoghue. The stable immediately thrived, helped by the arrival of most of Dorothy Paget's Flat horses. Tragically, he was killed when hunting with the Old Berkshire, run over by a speeding lorry which caused his horse to fall on a road near Faringdon, aged only 42.

It was generally assumed that Gordon Johnson Houghton's widow Helen, the twin sister of the successful (mainly) National Hunt trainer Fulke Walwyn, would take over the licence. No woman held a trainer's licence in Great Britain at the time, but Sir Gordon Richards, then arguably the most respected figure in the game, encouraged her to send in an application and assured her that, surely, common sense must dictate that the Jockey Club would give her a licence. That, though, overlooked just how chauvinist British society still was at that time and, although Mrs Johnson Houghton was indeed training the horses, she was not allowed to be acknowledged as their trainer.  Consequently the licence was given firstly to Colonel Poole and then to her head lad Charles Jerdein, who thus gained a place in the record books as the trainer of the 1956 2,000 Guineas winner Gilles De Retz (GB) (Royal Charger {GB}). The stable had come close to Classic glory the previous year when Miss Paget's Nucleus (Ire) (Nimbus {GB}) had finished second in the St Leger.

Officially Gilles De Retz had a different trainer as a four-year-old because Mrs Johnson Houghton's 23-year-old nephew Peter Walwyn, who had been serving as assistant trainer to Geoffrey Brooke in Newmarket and who subsequently became champion trainer when based at Seven Barrows in Lambourn, was brought in to take over as licence-holder at Blewbury. This was only ever going to be a temporary arrangement because Mrs Johnson Houghton's son Fulke would take over when he attained his majority. Consequently, Fulke took over the licence for the 1961 season, notwithstanding that he didn't actually turn 21 until the second week of May.  Aside from having grown up in his parents' stable, he had also gained experience in France working for Major John Goldsmith (author of the wonderful war memoir Accidental Agent) and Jacko Cunnington.  

Both bred and raised to be a top-class trainer, Fulke took to the job like a duck to water, helped by the fact that he became the principal GB-based trainer for the American millionaire Charles Engelhard. (Engelhard's horses in Ireland were, of course, trained by Vincent O'Brien, most obviously the 1970 Triple Crown hero Nijinsky II.)

Engelhard was a huge fan of the progeny of Ribot and, while he was still in his 20s, Fulke trained several top-class Ribot horses for Engelhard including the full-brothers Ribocco and Ribero, who both completed the Irish Sweeps Derby/St Leger double (in 1967 and '68 respectively); Romulus, winner in 1962 of the Greenham Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes; and Ribofilio, winner of the Dewhurst Stakes in 1968. A star for the pair by another stallion was the Sir Gaylord horse Habitat, winner in 1969 of the Lockinge Stakes, Prix Quincey and Prix du Moulin (and subsequently an outstanding stallion at Airlie Stud in Ireland).

 

Ile De Bourbon wins the Coronation Cup in 1979 | Racingfotos

 

After Engelhard's death in 1971, Fulke trained horses for his widow Jane including the outstanding home-bred Habitat filly Rose Bowl, winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in both 1975 and '76.  In both seasons her next race was the Champion S. at Newmarket, which she won in 1975 before finishing second, beaten only a neck, the following year.

Good horses trained by Fulke for his English patrons during this period included Commander Emmet's Aegean, winner of the Queen's Prize and Chester Cup in 1966; Clifford Nicholson's Haymaking, successful that year in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot; and Tim Holland-Martin's Parsimony, winner in 1972 of both the Cork And Orrery Stakes at Royal Ascot and the July Cup at Newmarket. Memories of the Engelhard years were rekindled by the successes of Mrs Rogers' horses Libra's Rib and Ad Lib Ra, winners respectively of the Princess of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket in 1975 and the Extel Handicap at Goodwood in 1977. These were both sons of Libra, dam of Ribocco and Ribero, with Libra's Rib being a full-brother to that pair and Ad Lib Ra being by Droll Role.

At that same 1977 Glorious Goodwood meeting, Fulke sent out Tim Holland-Martin's So Blessed filly Scarcely Blessed, a daughter of Parsimony, to win the King George Stakes.  Eleven years later this same owner/trainer combination won yet another top-class sprint with the same family when Posada (GB) won the Cork And Orrery Stakes at Royal Ascot.  Posada was a daughter of the Habitat stallion Homing from Nuppence (GB), a half-sister to Parsimony.

Fulke came agonisingly close to winning the biggest race of all in 1977 when Lord Leverhulme's Hotfoot colt Hot Grove (GB) was beaten a short head by The Minstrel in the Derby, having previously won the Chester Vase. Victory in the autumn in the St Simon Stakes at Newbury was only slight consolation for this near miss. Further glory followed courtesy of two of the stable's three-year-olds of 1978, Ile De Bourbon and Double Form (Ire).

Ile De Bourbon won the King Edward VII Stakes, the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and Geoffrey Freer Stakes at three, and the G1 Coronation Cup at four; Double Form, bred and raced by Baroness Thyssen, won only one race (the Great Eastern Handicap at Newmarket) at three but was placed in the Greenham, Heron and Cork And Orrery Stakes as well as the July Cup, Stewards' Cup and Prix de l'Abbaye. At four he was outstanding, proving himself Europe's dominant sprinter with victories in the Temple Stakes and King's Stand Stakes, Haydock Park Vernons Sprint Cup and Prix de l'Abbaye. 

Ile De Bourbon's glory days were nostalgic because, bred by Mrs Engelhard, he was a Nijinsky half-brother to Rose Bowl. She sent him to Blewbury as a yearling but then decided to sell him. Fulke saw more potential than was immediately suggested by the colt's lanky, weak-looking physique and put together a syndicate to buy him, the syndicate consisting of Mr Engelhard's former racing manager David McCall, Sir Philip Oppenheimer, the trainer and his mother. Ile De Bourbon carried Mr McCall's colours at three (including when he won the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes which Sir Philip Oppenheimer sponsored via his company De Beers) and ran in the Oppenheimer livery at four. He subsequently did well at stud, siring the 1988 Derby winner Kahyasi (Ire).

Another good three-year-old in 1978 was G2 Park Hill Stakes heroine Idle Waters (GB) (Mill Reef), bred and raced by Surrey-based owner/breeders Mr and Mrs Crutchley, for whom Fulke saddled many good winners from their 'Waters' family including Idle Waters' daughter Shining Water (GB) (Kalaglow {Ire}), winner of the Solario Stakes in 1986.

Fulke's position among the country's elite trainers looked secure when HH Aga Khan IV decided in 1978 to resume having horses in England and chose him and Michael Stoute as his two trainers. Luck of the draw, though, dictated that the brightest star Shergar (Ire), a member of the second batch of yearlings which His Highness sent to England, ended up in Newmarket rather than at Blewbury. Fulke trained some good horses for the Aga Khan, coming closest to Classic glory when Baynoun (Ire) (Sassafras {Fr}) finished second, beaten a neck by Commanche Run, in the St Leger in 1984. Had that photo-finish gone the other way things might have been different, but as it was his yearling intake from the Aga Khan dwindled to nothing in 1987, by which time Luca Cumani had been added to the great owner-breeder's roster.

 

Gaie and Eve Johnson Houghton with Charlie Bishop at Royal Ascot | Racingfotos

 

Over and above his many big-race wins, much of the pleasure which Fulke received during this period came from the winners which he saddled in amateur races ridden by his wife Gaie, daughter of Major Goldsmith. She had not long retired from race-riding when their son Gordon began to establish himself as a good amateur rider under National Hunt rules.

Times change and one of the biggest changes during the 1980s was that Arab owners began to own an ever-greater proportion of the best horses in England. If one trained for one or more of them that was fine; if one didn't, one's stable inevitably declined. Some formerly leading trainers in the latter category, such as Jeremy Hindley, gave up the unequal struggle. Fulke didn't do that, but he found top-class horses ever harder to secure. He never lost his skill, though, and memories of past glories came flooding back early in the 21^st century. At Tattersalls Ireland's September Yearling Sale at Fairyhouse in 2001 he bought a colt by Ali- Royal (Ire) for 12,500 Irish guineas. The following year, this colt, named Tout Seul (Ire), proved himself the star of what was by then the trainer's small string by winning the Shergar Cup Juvenile Stakes at Ascot, the Tattersalls' Breeders' Stakes at the Curragh and the G1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. 

Fulke retired at the end of the 2006 season and handed the reins at Blewbury to his daughter Eve, who had been his assistant for several years by this time. She has done him proud. Defying the disadvantage of generally not training for any of the big-spenders, she has repeatedly shown that he has inherited her father's (and her grandparents') knack of unearthing good horses and then doing very well with them. Of all the happy days which the family have enjoyed since the handover, the opening day of Royal Ascot in 2018 stands supreme. Bred and raced by Gaie Johnson Houghton (who named him in honour of her father) and trained by Eve, Accidental Agent (GB) proved to be a wonderful campaigner, earning over £750,000 in a 59-race career which ran from 2016 to 2024. He provided the Johnson Houghtons with a host of red-letter days, with his 33/1 victory in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2018 being the best day of all.

Fulke was a very popular member of a very popular family. He will be remembered as a very good trainer, a very successful trainer and a very nice man; and we offer our condolences to his family and many friends.

 

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