Mark Tompkins: 'Why did I retire? I could see how racing was going'

Has racing always been your passion?
I wanted to be a trainer from the age of five or six. One of my father's grandparents lived opposite trainer Ron Mason in Northamptonshire and when we went to visit I used to disappear off to help the head lad and my parents would pick me up on the way home. I was very lucky that I knew what I wanted to do from the word go.

You're a proud Yorkshireman, so how did you end up in Newmarket?
After grammar school in Sheffield I worked for Walter Wharton in Melton Mowbray and then Willie Musson in Surrey, where Nick Williams was also based at the time and the three of us got on very well. Eventually I came up to Newmarket to be assistant to Captain Ryan Jarvis and have been here ever since.

Who had the biggest influence on your career?
Undoubtedly Ryan and Jean Jarvis, they were top class to me. I stayed with them until Mr Jarvis retired and that's when I started training. He was what I would call an old-fashioned and proper trainer. He'd walk around evening stables every night and feel the horse's legs and everything was done correctly. You were taught horsemanship and without any doubt I followed what he taught me when I started training. They never got the top horses but they were very good at placing them.