PrintWhen Gillian Johnston was a teenager, in concession to her passion for equines, her parents allowed her to work one year as a groom so she could get horses out of her system and then settle down to more proper and ladylike pursuits. Well, many years later, Johnston owns more than 100 horses with her husband Summerfield K. Johnston Jr., and on Christmas morning, you would have found her mucking stalls on her Chattanooga, Tenn., farm.
An English native, Johnston said her parents just didn't consider horses a suitable career. "My parents sent me off to a very fancy college in London to do secretarial work, and all the girls there were very much into living the debutante party life and that just wasn't my scene. I did that for a year and got through it somehow, and then my parents gave me a year to do horses and, well, here I am still mucking stalls," she said cheerfully.
While growing up in England, Johnston, now 63, dabbled in show jumping, rode in point-to-point races, foxhunted and was, of course, a member of the ubiquitous British Pony Club. She was a member of the first team to win the now prestigious Prince Phillip Cup, an international Pony Club games trophy.
During that supposed get-horses-out-of-your-system year, Johnston was enticed to America by a job offer in a polo barn. "It was 1964, and someone said they had a friend that needed a groom in America and would pay some fantastic sum of money for a good groom. Back in those days, you hardly ever saw a girl as a groom, but I leaped at the chance and ended up being the first girl polo groom in the United States," she said.
Since then, polo has played a huge part in Johnston's life. In 1966 she traveled with the U.S. team to Argentina as a groom. In 1969 she married Summerfield, who still plays polo. They also have a barn at the Gulfstream Polo Club in Florida and a ranch in Wyoming.
The 3,000-acre property in Tennessee has been home to a Thoroughbred breeding operation, and was once a polo pony lay-up establishment but now serves as a rest stop for the Johnstons' 150 polo ponies and their steeplechase and flat horses. Plus, it's a retirement home for all the horses that have "done right by us."
Of all places, Florida is where Johnston discovered her first steeplechase prospect. "Pete Bostwick got me started in steeplechase," recalled Johnston. "I had a 2-year-old filly we bred, in training with Bobby Connors at Gulfstream, and I was riding her around the polo grounds. She was a big, gangly thing, and Pete took one look at her and said, 'You should make that horse a steeplechaser.' He had me gallop her around, and even though at the time it was my belief that mares couldn't make good steeplechasers, he finally persuaded me."
That filly was Ready Perk (Sizzling John--Maxim Star, Duplex II), and Johnston now has five generations of her bloodlines in her barn.
Because Johnston's husband had grown up with Johnny Griggs in Kentucky, he be-came an obvious choice as a trainer for Ready Perk. As in any horsy endeavor, Johnston rolled up her sleeves and went along, learning the ins and outs of steeplechase training.
Eventually Johnston decided to train for herself, and by the time Ready Perk won the 1980 Iroquois hurdle stakes (Tenn.), John-ston's name went down in the record books as trainer. "I got the laurels for that one," she admitted, "but Johnny put all the dirty work into her."
Johnston trained her fair share of winners, but as she accrued more and more horses, and the competition kept getting tougher, she began to look for a better way to enjoy a sport she was now deeply passionate about.
"I was doing the galloping myself, and it was getting tough on me. Johnny suggested I let Janet Elliot train for me, [as he was cutting back too]," she said. And so Johnston's foray as strictly an owner began.
Winning Colors
Horses such as Dandy Boy, Ask Don, Allen Prell and Scorpious have carried Johnston's brown and orange colors, but now Johnston is after a bigger piece of the pie.
Without much fuss or fanfare, Johnston is slowly positioning herself to compete for the National Steeplechase Association's leading owner title. In this year's standings she finished third with $223,229 in 51 starts, of which eight were wins. And while she was more than $100,000 shy of the leading owner, Kinross Farm, it should be noted her horses earned that money without a Grade I win and therefore without a Grade I purse.
"Yes, I think she really wants that," said longtime friend and occasional co-owner Sharon Sheppard of the NSA title. "She's competitive, there's no doubt about that."
Elliot said Johnston's competitive spirit is nicely tempered by the fact that she is "such a good sport. She never shows her disappointment. She takes it on the chin. Because she's so good to this sport and been in it so long, you really just want to wish success on her," she added.
Elliot is no longer the only trainer who has Johnston's horses. Kathy Neilson and Bruce Miller of Pennsylvania have Johnston horses, as does Ricky Hendriks. Alicia Murphy and Jack Fisher of Maryland have a couple each, and Toby Edwards of South Carolina has had horses for her in the past.
Johnston's reasons for spreading out her horses are classic Johnston. Altruistically, it's her way of keeping the business of steeplechasing invigorated; pragmatically she'd rather not see all her eggs in one basket.
An English native, Johnston said her parents just didn't consider horses a suitable career. "My parents sent me off to a very fancy college in London to do secretarial work, and all the girls there were very much into living the debutante party life and that just wasn't my scene. I did that for a year and got through it somehow, and then my parents gave me a year to do horses and, well, here I am still mucking stalls," she said cheerfully.
While growing up in England, Johnston, now 63, dabbled in show jumping, rode in point-to-point races, foxhunted and was, of course, a member of the ubiquitous British Pony Club. She was a member of the first team to win the now prestigious Prince Phillip Cup, an international Pony Club games trophy.
During that supposed get-horses-out-of-your-system year, Johnston was enticed to America by a job offer in a polo barn. "It was 1964, and someone said they had a friend that needed a groom in America and would pay some fantastic sum of money for a good groom. Back in those days, you hardly ever saw a girl as a groom, but I leaped at the chance and ended up being the first girl polo groom in the United States," she said.
Since then, polo has played a huge part in Johnston's life. In 1966 she traveled with the U.S. team to Argentina as a groom. In 1969 she married Summerfield, who still plays polo. They also have a barn at the Gulfstream Polo Club in Florida and a ranch in Wyoming.
The 3,000-acre property in Tennessee has been home to a Thoroughbred breeding operation, and was once a polo pony lay-up establishment but now serves as a rest stop for the Johnstons' 150 polo ponies and their steeplechase and flat horses. Plus, it's a retirement home for all the horses that have "done right by us."
Of all places, Florida is where Johnston discovered her first steeplechase prospect. "Pete Bostwick got me started in steeplechase," recalled Johnston. "I had a 2-year-old filly we bred, in training with Bobby Connors at Gulfstream, and I was riding her around the polo grounds. She was a big, gangly thing, and Pete took one look at her and said, 'You should make that horse a steeplechaser.' He had me gallop her around, and even though at the time it was my belief that mares couldn't make good steeplechasers, he finally persuaded me."
That filly was Ready Perk (Sizzling John--Maxim Star, Duplex II), and Johnston now has five generations of her bloodlines in her barn.
Because Johnston's husband had grown up with Johnny Griggs in Kentucky, he be-came an obvious choice as a trainer for Ready Perk. As in any horsy endeavor, Johnston rolled up her sleeves and went along, learning the ins and outs of steeplechase training.
Eventually Johnston decided to train for herself, and by the time Ready Perk won the 1980 Iroquois hurdle stakes (Tenn.), John-ston's name went down in the record books as trainer. "I got the laurels for that one," she admitted, "but Johnny put all the dirty work into her."
Johnston trained her fair share of winners, but as she accrued more and more horses, and the competition kept getting tougher, she began to look for a better way to enjoy a sport she was now deeply passionate about.
"I was doing the galloping myself, and it was getting tough on me. Johnny suggested I let Janet Elliot train for me, [as he was cutting back too]," she said. And so Johnston's foray as strictly an owner began.
Winning Colors
Horses such as Dandy Boy, Ask Don, Allen Prell and Scorpious have carried Johnston's brown and orange colors, but now Johnston is after a bigger piece of the pie.
Without much fuss or fanfare, Johnston is slowly positioning herself to compete for the National Steeplechase Association's leading owner title. In this year's standings she finished third with $223,229 in 51 starts, of which eight were wins. And while she was more than $100,000 shy of the leading owner, Kinross Farm, it should be noted her horses earned that money without a Grade I win and therefore without a Grade I purse.
"Yes, I think she really wants that," said longtime friend and occasional co-owner Sharon Sheppard of the NSA title. "She's competitive, there's no doubt about that."
Elliot said Johnston's competitive spirit is nicely tempered by the fact that she is "such a good sport. She never shows her disappointment. She takes it on the chin. Because she's so good to this sport and been in it so long, you really just want to wish success on her," she added.
Elliot is no longer the only trainer who has Johnston's horses. Kathy Neilson and Bruce Miller of Pennsylvania have Johnston horses, as does Ricky Hendriks. Alicia Murphy and Jack Fisher of Maryland have a couple each, and Toby Edwards of South Carolina has had horses for her in the past.
Johnston's reasons for spreading out her horses are classic Johnston. Altruistically, it's her way of keeping the business of steeplechasing invigorated; pragmatically she'd rather not see all her eggs in one basket.
