Deirdre has the answers

Mark Johnston once took

Fact is, if And Beyond wins Saturday's Rothmans Royals St Leger, the world's oldest classic, her husband won't have set eyes on him for a week.

While Mark's rubbing shoulders with the world's richest racehorse owners at the Keeneland Sales - postponed yesterday when the terrorist attack stunned America, but resuming today - Deirdre and the team at Kingsley House Stables are ensuring their record-breaking operation runs like clockwork.

The reality of top-flight training in the modern era is delegation. Success means increasing numbers of people want their horses to be part of it. Around 160 are housed in the Johnston yard, so it makes sense that this brilliant husband-and-wife partnership should have risen to the top. Together, they can do more.

The Scottish couple have come a long way since Hinari Video provided the only win of their inaugural 1987 season from a small base in Lincolnshire. For two tight years until Mark's growing reputation enabled them to trade up to Middleham, Deirdre's job as a PE teacher helped keep the bank manager at bay.

"We didn't have many horses and money was tight - I'd ride first lot, run for the shower and dash to school every morning," recalls Deirdre. "I started riding when I was five and, as soon as we moved, was able to do what I'd always wanted: give up teaching and plunge into working with Mark.

"I can often see, from a rider's point of view, what Mark sometimes can't as the horses canter past him. He often gives me a horse with a problem and leaves it to me to handle it - whether I stop or scale down work, checks with the vet, that kind of thing. It's a really important part of our operation."

The results were soon plain for all to see. The yard's first big winner came at local Doncaster's St Leger meeting in 1989, when Craft Express took the Portland Handicap. But it was Mister Baileys' 1994 2,000 Guineas victory - the first northern-trained classic winner for 17 years - that really put them on the map. They've come to expect at least a century of winners per season ever since. If that put them in the minds of racing enthusiasts, the extraordinary career of that bravest of stayers, white-faced Double Trigger, placed them firmly in our hearts.

Then, last year, Johnston twice entered the record books within 10 days. On 28 August, he registered the UK's fastest 100 Flat-trained winners in a season. On 4 September, he completed the fastest 1,000 Flat victories by a trainer in Britain - 13 years and 65 days after he first took out a licence, beating pace-setting Henry Cecil by 90 days.