Diamond Warrior (War Pass - Diamonds Or Gold, Johannesburg) is a survivor, owner/trainer Luanne Johnson says. | Photo: Erica Larson/The Horse

When hunter/jumper trainer and rider Luanne Johnson went with a client to look at a horse for sale, she didn’t think she’d be coming home with an emaciated Thoroughbred of her own. She didn’t think he’d nearly die, and she surely didn’t think he’d be competing at the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover with fewer months of training than you can count on one hand.

But, things don’t always go as planned.

Johnson, an experienced off-track Thoroughbred trainer, first met Diamond Warrior (now called “Bonez”) in September 2017. The 2011 gelding by War Pass, out of Diamonds Or Gold (Johannesburg) made 19 starts on the racetrack, winning four, and earned more than $52,000 before making his last start at Charles Town Races, in West Virginia, in January 2017 and finding himself in rough shape thereafter. His fortune was soon to change, however