It is often a case of catch me if you can with Johny Johny, and trainers Tim and Margaret Carter are hoping their pacemaking sprinter can outrun his rivals again in Saturday’s Gr.3 Haunui Farm Counties Bowl (1100m).
Johny Johny’s distinctive front-running style has seen him be victorious in his last four starts, including posting a hard-fought second black-type win in the Gr.3 Sweynesse Stakes (1200m) at Te Rapa four weeks ago.
“He’s been just ticking along nicely, we’ve spaced his racing out and tried to keep him fresh so he’ll go to the races in as good an order as we can get him,” Tim Carter said.
Babylon Berlin poses a serious threat to the son of Charm Spirit as they match weights at 59kg, but Carter assured there will be no change in the gelding’s tactics on Saturday.
“We’ve come up against Babylon Berlin in trials and races quite a few times and never finished in front of her, but I think we’ve worked out the best way to train Johny and putting the right riders on,” he said.
“It’s just going to be more-or-less a run along and catch me if you can style with him, we won’t be changing that.”
Carter was pleased to have apprentice jockey Jim Chung retain the ride aboard Johny Johny, having guided him to his last three victories.
“Jim gets along really well with the horse, in a way Jim’s both a senior and an apprentice because he’s a bit older at 27, so we’ve decided to stay with him,” he said.
“Johny’s not really a hard horse to ride because he’s got his own style of racing, we’ve had Jess Allen and Jim on him because they’re not obviously vigorous riders.
“Jim is a strong hands and heels rider which suits the horse because he doesn’t need too much, he just likes to run at his own pace.”
Carter has nominated the six-year-old for both the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) on New Year’s Day, and the Gr.1 JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) on January 13 at Trentham, hoping Saturday’s race can give an insight to how he will measure at the elite level.
“At this stage those are the goals, if we think he might be better suited to the more intermediate races then we’ll go there but the target is the Railway at the moment, then we’ll see what happens with the Telegraph,” Carter said.
Johny Johny is a $5 third-favourite with TAB bookmakers behind a dominant Babylon Berlin ($1.80), and Sacred Satono ($3.50), who returns from a one-run effort in Sydney. The gelding is rated a $10 chance with TAB Futures for the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m), with Babylon Berlin also heading that market at $3.20.
Following Johny Johny’s assignment, the Carters are looking forward to presenting five-year-old Pukana fresh-up next Saturday at Te Rapa in the Maiden 1300m, after electing to bypass Te Aroha’s midweek meeting.
“I’ve taken him out of Te Aroha because Te Rapa have got a 1300m Maiden race next Saturday, which would suit him better. He’s a very promising horse that one,” Carter said.
“He trialled lovely over at Waipa a couple of weeks ago, he won the trial and will be ready to go fresh up at Te Rapa.”