Johnston takes the trainers’ crown at Goodwood

It might have been John Dunlop’s day at Goodwood’s season finale - but it was Mark Johnston’s too.

Arundel stalwart Dunlop was centre of attention as he undertook his last visit as a trainer to his local track before he retires at the end of the season.

A presentation by Lord March saw the crowd show their appreciation of Dunlop’s contribution to racing - and Goodwood in particular - over more than four decades.

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Dunlop couldn’t mark his final race card on the Downs with a win - but Johnston did find a winner to ensure he finally wrestled the Dick Hern Trophy out of the long-standing grasp of Richard Hannon.

Hannon has been Goodwood’s top trainer for each of the past four seasons but despite fiding ten winners this season - one a dead-heat - Hannon couldn’t catch Johnston, whose one win on Sunday took his total for the year to 12.

Johnston’s success was a big-priced one too - Jason Maguire coming first past the post on Tartan Jura at 16/1 in the Betfred Bigger And Better Goals Galore Alderbrook Stakes, the opening race on the card and Goodwood’s annual contest for national hunt jockeys.

Elsewhere on the final day there was a late back-to-back double for Dane O’Neill, who won the Goodwood Racehorse Owners Group Stakes on 7/2 favourite Nicholascopernicus and followed it with a 16/1 win on First Post in the Lavant House School Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

See the Chichester Observer on Thursday for a report and pictures from Goodwood, plus MD Adam Waterworth’s last Diary from the Downs for 2012.

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