It’s the end of an era for one of the most iconic racing families in Australia with Fran Houlahanannouncing her retirement as a trainer, reports racing.com.

After holding a license for 37 years, Houlahan, the daughter of legendary jumps trainer Jim, and her training partner and husband Brian Johnston, have decided their time is up.

They’ve transferred their horses to their daughter, Mornington trainer Amy, while they’re going to sell their cattle farm to give themselves some freedom as they embark on the next phase of their lives.

“We just want to be free to have some time to ourselves and do what we want to do,” Johnston said.

“When you’re a horse trainer – it’s a 24/7, 365 day a year job and it’s very hard to have holidays and when you are having holidays you think about (racing) all the time.

“The job has been good to us, and I think we’ve been good for the job and at the end of the day we walk away gracefully and wish everybody all the best. It’s a great industry.”

The duo’s best horse was jumps star Pentiffic, while they also trained dual Victorian Country Horse of the Year Forest Knight.

Johnston joked he’s looking forward to being an owner and sitting on the other side of the fence.

“We’ll just annoy our trainer,” he laughed.

“We’ll ring her up for daily updates and things like that.”

Despite retiring as a trainer, Johnston says his wife won’t be lost to racing.

“Fran’s not done with the industry yet, she’d still like to be involved in some capacity,” Johnston said.

“She’ll find a role somewhere along the way I guess.

“But I’m done – I want to sit on the beach, we’ve got a grouse house down at Balnarring just 64m off the water.

“If we wake up and it’s cold in the morning, we’ll get on a plane and go to Queensland where it’s warm or something – we just want to be free.

“We’ve had our time.”