Johnny Barnes has the potential to become a regular visitor to the winner’s enclosure after the bay colt’s success on his first sighting of a racecourse a fortnight ago.

That is the assertion of Simon Scupham, the chairman of Bermuda Thoroughbred Racing (BTR), who watched the two-year-old — named after the Island’s legendary morning well-wisher — storm to a thrilling win to kick-start the evening meeting at Yarmouth, Norfolk, on the East Coast of England.

The four-legged Johnny Barnes may have been unable to perform any victory waves, but Scupham, who is the chairman of Shoreline Insurance Managers in Hamilton, hopes that just like his namesake, he will find a special place in the hearts of the Bermuda public.

“It was almost as if it was scripted and you felt like the spirit of Johnny Barnes had taken over the whole occasion,” said Scupham, a racing enthusiast who teamed up with Highclere, the leading horse syndicate management firm in Britain, to establish BTR.

“The Johnny Barnes story would be absolutely wonderful if he did turn out to be a special horse, as it would be in keeping with how special Johnny Barnes [the person] has been for Bermuda all these years.

“I think the whole Island would get a big kick out of that.”

With decorated jockey William Buick in the saddle, whose silks were in Bermuda pink and navy blue, Johnny Barnes was described as the “star performer” of the meeting by the Racing Post — the British racing betting “bible” — after finishing ahead of the much fancied Bartholomew Fair.

Like Johnny Barnes, who is trained by the venerable John Gosden, Bartholomew Fair is also under the stewardship of a top trainer in Luca Cumani, and is rated as one of the best two-year-olds in his Newmarket-based stable.

That he was able to defeat the 2-1 paper favourite by a 1½ lengths, is sure-fire sign that Gosden has plenty of raw talent to work his magic with.

Scupham also cheekily pointed out that at a cost of €310,000 (about $415,000), Johnny Barnes was considerably cheaper purchase than Bartholomew Fair, who was bought at approximately twice the price.

“William Buick is one of the top of jockeys in the UK and he just touched [Johnny Barnes] once and he just took off — and that was the end of that,” Scupham said. “He has been on some top horses and he kept saying, ‘He certainly impressed me’.

“It wasn’t as if we didn’t beat anything because Bartholomew Fair is a serious horse, so that’s a sign of what we’ve got.

“Johnny Barnes is only a baby at two and there’s a lot of growth to come.

“It’s such early days and you can get carried away with yourself. There are a lot of horses in training and not all of them can be superstars, but so far, so good.”

Johnny Barnes is not the only Bermuda-themed horse owned by BTR.

The evocatively named Horseshoe Bay, a potential future Epsom Derby candidate, is being trained by the Sir Michael Stoute, arguably the most successful trainer in British history, and has an entry to make his debut next month at Newmarket.

The two colts were chosen last October by BTR’s John Warren, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading bloodstock advisers and is also the bloodstock agent to the Queen.

“Johnny Barnes is a miler and wouldn’t likely be a Derby candidate, but something like the 2,000 Guineas could be his distance,” said Scupham, who has had interests in nearly 100 horses.

“He’s a compact horse with a lot of power and economical movement, whereas Horseshoe Bay is a much bigger horse with a lot of stature and has presence about him.

“Sir Michael takes horses who are slower to come to hand like Horseshoe Bay, who is probably more of a middle-distance horse.

“There’s always been an expectation that he would get one run in as a two-year-old.

“That’s sort of the style of Sir Michael: have one run as an education and then go away for the winter and come back as a three-year-old with potentially the Derby in mind.

“Both horses have very good heads and that’s very important for racehorses. We couldn’t be more happier with either of them.”

Scupham said that the BTR syndicate had attracted several like-minded people, with Bermudian connections who were keen to experience “wonderful moments at a racecourse”.

He added: “The whole idea for this is to look for high-end, well-bred thoroughbreds and find people who love the Bermuda connection and identify with it.

“This is not about a major business enterprise, but it’s something for people who love and appreciate that having these wonderful moments at a racecourse is priceless.

“Obviously, we treat it as a business as you can’t just ignore the financial side of things. But it’s about finding people who will attend on the day and enjoy it. You can’t expect to win every race and you have to appreciate the high moments because there will be low ones.”