Sir Mark Prescott and the Derby day dash to a rails bookmaker that stopped a bullet heading for his wallet

Sir Mark Prescott has revealed that a last-minute warning from a fellow trainer prevented a punting disaster after he had lined up an apparent good thing for a handicap on Derby day.

Prescott was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday’s newspaper about the changing landscape in Newmarket brought about by a swathe of emerging younger trainers and recalled his own early days when he was the youngest trainer in the town.

While blunt about some of the unjust treatment meted out by his ex-regimental nemeses, Prescott also revealed an underlying decency about many of the trainers, which manifested in understated acts of kindness and reconciliation – not least when Prescott was spared at the last minute at Epsom.

The act of mercy was delivered by Bill Wightman, who, upon gleaning that Prescott had a much-fancied and well-backed contender for a big handicap on Derby day, sought out the trainer in the Epsom stands to advise him that his own Bell-Tent, who had been racking up 'duck eggs' on straight tracks, was "a much better horse round the houses".

"He went off down the steps again and suddenly I realised what he meant, shot off the stand, down to a rails bookmaker, and adjusted things as best I could in a short time," said Prescott. "He'd given me just enough time, not enough time to tell anyone else, but just enough time, and had gone to the trouble to come and find me.

"So when I inevitably finished second to Bell-Tent, I went and thanked him and he said, 'Saved yourself, old man, did you? Well done.' What a man."

Read more from Sir Mark Prescott in the Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday.

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