Mark Johnston: ‘It’d be great to buy the pub - there’d be no vegetarian options’

I hesitate to suggest that it's been done deliberately to raise the blood pressure of the trainer but a cutting from the Daily Mail has been left on the table in the operations room at Park Stables, and one glance at the headline has me fearing the worst.

'Should vets be vegan?' is the paper's question, and as Mark Johnston walks through the door, I suspect the answer will be terse and to the point. I'm not wrong. As ever, though, there's more to the man than a blurted monosyllable or two. A nonsensical headline is seen merely as the starting point for a rant or an impassioned debate – depending on whether he can find somebody to argue with him – and he's soon in full flight.

The answer, unsurprisingly, is no.