Recent article in the Racing Post

Fully adjusted Portman relished being ‘the kid in a sweet shop’ Being part of a training centre like Lambourn, part of a community sharing facilities rather than having the run of your own place, doesn’t suit everyone. It didn’t particularly seem to suit Johnny Portman at first – even if an early success at Royal Ascot suggested otherwise. Having spent 14 years renting Peter Cundell’s yard in Compton, Portman made the short 20-mile switch west to Upper Lambourn in 2012, and within 12 months he enjoyed a Royal Ascot winner when Annecdote struck in the Sandringham. “I’m not a natural in a training centre,” he says. “We were spoiled for many years in Compton, never seeing another trainer. It was an adjustment to me coming here, but the joy of this yard is that you never really feel like you’re in Lambourn [being outside the centre].” It’s fair to say that, 13 years on, Portman has well and truly settled in. Last year was a strong one as he banged in 25 winners, his third best tally, and surpassed his highest prize-money total with nearly £450,000 banked. The trainer has 46 boxes filled at his yard – a stone’s throw from one of the entrances to the Peter Walwyn gallop on Maddle Road – and has familiarised himself with the idea of sharing facilities in the village after leaving his old base. “You have the benefit of the fantastic facilities and I can’t praise those enough, and the people that work to provide them,” he says. “They are first-class facilities, so to have them on my doorstep is lovely. “There’s so many different varieties of gallops. You’re like a kid in a sweet shop. You can do different things every day with your horse if you want to because there’s so much variety, and that suits the way I train well. You very rarely see all my horses out in one string. I’ll have two there, three there, and so on, and they’ll all be doing different things on different days and it’s very easy as it’s not disruptive in any way at all.” Most of the morning work has been completed by the time I arrive and conversation turns to last year. Looking at the statistics from the outside, I assume Portman would have been satisfied with what his team achieved. But such is Portman’s determination and desire that he was keen for more. Portman says: “It’s very hard to win anything and compete at any level, so we were very happy, but it didn’t feel as if it had gone as well to me as it looked to everyone else. But that’s just me being critical of myself. We had enough winners, but I wanted more. It was nice to win a lot of prize-money, but that was probably only down to two or three horses really. “So much about this game is perception. It looked like we had a good year and we were delighted with that. Prize-money is an important thing, so when you win your highest amount for 25 years, something’s got to have gone right.” When asked if he is one to set himself goals at the start of each year, he replies: “I always used to set myself targets and they’d go catastrophically wrong. I prefer just to concentrate on each horse as an individual project and just work out what we can do with them and hopefully that collectively pushes us up the ladder. “At the end of the day, looking at that trainers’ list on a daily basis, all that matters is to be as high up there as you can. So whenever you’re in the top 80, you want to be in the top 50. When you’re in the top 50, you want to be in the top 30. Being in the top 80 doesn’t sound very ambitious at all, but you try and stay in the top 80. “Rather than saying I’m going to have 25 winners before September, I’d prefer to make a plan for each horse and hope that it all comes together. It’s a waste of time setting targets because they never work.” But even if he’s not setting targets for 2025, is there any extra pressure for the year ahead after that? “No,” Portman answers simply. “Not really. As long as we don’t have a worse season!” Two Tempting scooped just over £23,000 in prize-money at Chester last week, the yard’s ninth winner of the year. “We’ve had a good start,” says Portman. “It’s a very thin line between things going bad and things going well. You’re just sort of wavering really which way it’s gonna go, but you need a bit of luck. “The horses are happy and healthy, which is vital, and the staff are doing a great job. “We’ve got a good team at the moment. They all seem pretty happy and there’s so many different little ingredients to go into. There’s never one particular thing.” Walking round the forecourt of the yard, a number of Portman’s stars such as Rumstar and Sweet Reward pop their heads out of their respective windows to say hello. After ending last season with Listed success at Ascot, Rumstar stayed on well to land the Group 3 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket earlier this month. He could go for the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock on Saturday week, before a Group 1 crack in the King Charles III at Royal Ascot. “We were delighted with his win first time out this season,” says Portman, “and on the back of that we thought an entry in a Group 1 was justified. The Temple Stakes en route is also an option. “He’s had a good winter break and it’s probably the first one he’s had since he’s been here. I think it’s been a great help to him. He looks like a stronger horse this year. He’s only little, but he is definitely stronger, more robust.” The Temple Stakes will come three weeks after Newmarket and three weeks before the royal meeting, so decisions need to be made on his next assignment. “It’s a little bit of a conundrum,” admits Portman. “We could just do nothing and keep him fresh before Ascot, but there is a danger of waiting six weeks with a horse who is clearly very well, and came out of Newmarket seemingly very well. The danger of waiting till Ascot is that if something goes wrong or he’s not so well in six weeks’ time, we might have missed an opportunity en route. “The danger of going to Haydock is that he could have a hard race and not do so well, and we’re going to Ascot asking ourselves if he’s in peak form. But it’s a logical step. The Temple Stakes is in the calendar deliberately for these sprinters. It should be a very feasible step.” Rumstar finished fifth in Group 1 Commonwealth Cup in 2023 and 13th in that season’s Sprint Cup, but a return to the top level has been up for discussion between the trainer and joint-owners, Vincent and Russell Ward. Portman says: “We’ve talked about it for the last couple of years where we’ve envisaged ending up with him. You have to think big sometimes, don’t you. Is he a Group 1 horse? Probably not. But nobody has ever won a Group 1 by not running in one. We’re not assuming he is one in any shape or form at all, but sometimes you’ve got to turn up in these races.”