In The Hot Seat: John Berry

[Wandering Eyes]

We have turned the tables on our obituary and feature writer John Berry, who doubles as the master of Beverley House Stables and Newmarket's unofficial weather man. A terrible singer, he gave up the possibility of a life as a theologian to train racehorses.

How did you become involved in racing in the first place?

I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm in Scotland where we had horses and ponies, and with parents passionately involved in racing, with the Sporting Life on the table every day and the racing on the TV. Under the circumstances, it was very easy to end up wanting to become a jockey (which I tried to become, unsuccessfully).

What's your proudest moment in the sport to date?

Winning the Newmarket Town Plate, in 2011 with Kadouchski, as owner, trainer and rider. I am also proud of the exploits of Roy Rocket, whom I bred, part-owned and trained and who, like Kadouchski, I rode pretty much every day for several years.  His achievements at Brighton led to him being voted the recipient of the ROA Flat Special Achievement Award in 2018. That was very special.

Aside from the sport, I'm proud of having been Mayor of Newmarket, which is sort of racing-related simply as most things involving Newmarket are racing-related to some extent.

And your defining memory of 2025? 

My wife Emma's little homebred Dereham won the two-mile handicap on the July Course for the third time, a very special feat which I still find a little bit hard to believe as he's as much a pet as a racehorse.

What motivates you?

I wanted to be successful in the game, almost as if to prove a point (even if only to myself). I can't realistically say that I have been, but it is human nature not to like to admit defeat so I'll keep trying. The other thing is that my daily routine has been pretty much the same for decades and consequently it has become my whole life, so the thought of that life ending frightens me. It will, of course, have to end some time and then something will replace it and I will cope with that, as that is what one does, but it is human nature (or my nature, anyway) to prefer the familiar and to fear the unknown.

Give us an underrated sire to keep the right side of next year…

Golden Horn and Rajasinghe still don't really get the credit they deserve.  I'm sure that both will continue to sire good horses.

With most new stallions, I look at their fee and think that it's too high, often much too high. I didn't think that with Study Of Man, who is now proven as a high-class stallion; and of the current batch of unproven sires Triple Time was one horse who I thought seemed under-appreciated when he retired. We'll find out in 2027 and beyond whether I'm right.

Tell us something people don't know about you…

I've never been as brave as I would like to be. It's not so much that nobody else knows that, more that nobody else will have ever given the matter any thought. By contrast, I have thought about it too much over the years.

Your favourite place/racecourse and why?

I'm very fond of Brighton, a splendid racecourse run by good people (a description which applies to most courses). We've been lucky there over the years and that always makes one like a course.

Away from racing, Devon is my favourite county. My brother and I used to have two weeks there every summer when I was a child, staying with my grandparents adjacent to Dartmoor, and my father ended up living back in his home county. In my over-idealising mind the county is a sort of heaven on earth.

Did you ever consider an alternative career as a meteorologist?

Ha, ha! I'm happy to be an enthusiastic amateur rather than a skilled professional, as both meteorologist and rider.

There was a story that I might have been going to join the church, which wasn't and isn't correct but stems from the fact that after I had finished my A-levels I secured a place to read theology at St Peter's College, Oxford. I dropped out and the course would have been wasted on me at the time; but I'd love to do it now, although obviously I never will.

What's your go-to karaoke song?

I am told (often) that I am a very bad singer. I always think that most of Leonard Cohen's songs should be easy enough as you don't really need to be able to sing to perform them, but then I'd probably be told that I was being too gloomy. I have it in my mind that I'd be able to sing After The Gold Rush well, in the rather quirky way that Neil Young sings it, but realistically if I tried to do so I'd almost certainly find out that I have been deluding myself.

Who /what inspires you?

People who devote their whole life to the sport, achieve plenty and remain very decent people are obvious sources of inspiration, such as Jack Berry, Jonjo O'Neill and Martin Pipe. But you never need to look very far anywhere in racing to find kind, hard-working people, and that's really what life is all about. To move from the general to the specific, it's pretty much impossible to live in Newmarket for any length of time and not develop both respect and affection for Sir Mark Prescott.

Give us a horse to follow in 2026…

It's easier to look outside this stable (not least because, as a very biased optimist, in my mind they are all potential stars here) so I'll suggest that, the way things often work out, the horses of the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid are likely to have a good year in 2026. Zeus Olympios looks likely to be a big part. He seems a terrific horse and one can be sure that Karl Burke will continue to place him to very good effect.

 

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