MARK Johnston's chance of breaking the all-time winners record stalled at the gate after he equalled the total at the weekend.

A double on Saturday drew the Middleham-based trainer level with Richard Hannon snr's tally of 4,193.

Racecourse debutant Quintada won in a maiden at Doncaster before Dr Richard Kimble defied a market drift to make all in the final race at Ripon to level the scores.

However, with just the one runner on Sunday, all of his hope rested on Lynwood Gold in the 2.30pm at Pontefract but the horse was last out of the gates and was some 12 lengths behind within seconds of the race starting.

A gap that jockey Franny Norton was unable to claw back over the one mile four furlong race.

Despite the minor setback, the trainer's chase for legendary status moves to Leicester on Monday when he is expected to saddle three horses at the afternoon meeting in the Midlands.

Speaking to the Racing Post on Friday night at Chelmsford racecourse, Deidre Johnston, wife of Mark Johnston, said: "We hadn't thought about it much until last week and then it was always on the telly.

"It will be nice to get it out of the way and get back to normal. It is exciting and hopefully brings a bit of press coverage to our sport. If we can help with that, that's brilliant."