Johnston Syndicate Cash In On Success

Features | 9th November 2021

Imagine buying a racehorse for 18,000gns and selling it two years later for a whopping 380,000gns! That was the reality for a Kingsley Park syndicate who recently sold their Group 3 winner, Dancing King at the Tattersalls Horses in Training sale at Newmarket! 

“It was very exciting for partners to watch the sale but I was not surprised that he made 380,000gns,” says Johnston, one of 20 shareholders in the Group 3 winner who was knocked down to Blandford Bloodstock on 26th October.

“We bought Dancing King as a yearling in the Tattersalls Book 2 sale. He was a typical Kingsley Park buy: cheap, but with looks and pedigree that allowed us to dream,” he recalls.

“He was by an unfashionable sire in Free Eagle but his dam was a Group 3 winner herself and had already produced several high class performers. In my ratings, I gave him a ‘P’ which means ‘improver’.”

Dancing King was certainly that. He won five races, all at three, culminating in the Group 3 tote March Stakes at Goodwood at the end of August, which took his official rating to 103 and his career earnings over £125,000.

“After his Goodwood win I knew we had something very valuable on our hands and, frankly, I was not willing to risk running him again in races like the Cesarewitch,” explains Johnston.

Following on from the success the Kingsley Park partnerships have enjoyed with the likes of Rose Of Kildare, Dark Vision and Poet’s Society, the three-year-old won four handicaps in succession between March and June.

But later in the season he took his form to a new level, finishing third in the Group 3 Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket and a close second in a Listed race at Chester before making his breakthrough at Pattern level at Goodwood.

“He had an inauspicious start to his career with three runs, one place, and a handicap rating of 73 as a two-year-old,” admits Mark. “But at three he won his first four starts in handicaps and five of his eight starts in all.

“I was very sorry to see him go as I think he could well go on to be a force amongst the stayers but it was a great result for our partners,” he adds.

KINGSLEY PARK

The Kingsley Park Partnerships, which Mark Johnston began a few years ago, brings together small groups of like-minded lovers of racing to allow them to have a share in a racehorse and enjoy the sport at a high level.

Previous partnerships have enjoyed great success. With the likes of Broxbourne, who was bought for 3,000 guineas, won five races (including valuable wins at Ascot and Glorious Goodwood ) and was sold for 30,000 guineas. They have also enjoyed brilliant times with Poet’s Society. Dark Vision and more recently Rose Of Kildare.

Could you be a shareholder in their next success story? Enquire today HERE! 

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