How long has it been Philip Hobbs and Johnson white ?

Philip Hobbs's longtime assistant Johnson White is excited about the imminent prospect of joining his prolific boss on the training licence.

White was speaking to the Racing Post as part of a major feature in Sunday's Racing Post in which Hobbs revealed his pride at becoming just the fourth jumps trainer in Britain to reach 3,000 winners, a landmark achieved with Zanza at Newbury last month, and discussed the reasons for a tough couple of seasons and plans to turn those fortunes around.

Central to those plans is taking out a joint-licence with 49-year-old White, who has been a key cog of the Sandhill engine room ever since his first encounter with Hobbs provided a reality check.

"I came to ride out for the guv'nor in the school holidays when I would have been 14 or 15," he said. "I'd have been watching [Richard] Dunwoody, [John] Francome, [Steve] Smith-Eccles, all that lot and you think, 'That's what I want to do.' I got out of the car and my mum introduced me to Sarah [Hobbs] and the guv'nor, who asked what I wanted to do when I was older.

"I said I wanted to be a jockey and he looked at my feet [size 12] and said I had absolutely no chance! My dreams were dashed very early on."

White has now been with Hobbs for nearly 30 years and promotion alongside the main man is finally close to hand.

"Philip and Sarah have been fantastic to work for and it's been discussed for a number of years me joining the licence at some stage. To start with, it was fairly loosely, but, as time has gone on, it's been discussed more seriously.

"It then became apparent the guv'nor wasn't too far away from training 3,000 winners. Quite rightly, he wanted to achieve it because, as soon as I join the licence, it goes back to nought. He was keen to get the 3,000 in his own name and I wasn't going to stand in the way of such an incredible achievement, but the wheels were very much in motion and we're just waiting to hear when. Hopefully it won't be long, which is exciting."

I agree Jimnast, three of their last six have won so maybe things are looking up.

Their only runner today looks to have fair place claims, back to his winning distance and below his last winning mark, last run wasnt too bad over a distance probably a shade too far.

I have wrote him off...Mind you i wrote Henry Cecil off then along came Frankel.

They have worked as a team for at least 30 years alongside Sarah Hobbs of course. Like many long established yards that have grown from small beginnings, it gets harder to keep the horses healthy over time. Paul Nicholls is scrupulous about removing every horse from the yard and then cleaning and resting for a month and that seems to help but I don't know what policy Philip uses. Ben Pauling summed it up when he had an amazing strike rate from a brand new yard. The horses are healthier. The problem is keeping them that way.