Sir Mark Prescott: 'It was the best moment of my life - I thought I was the messiah National Hunt racing had been waiting for'
In the first of a five-part weekly series, Peter Thomas talks to the veteran trainer about the horses who have shaped his long and illustrious career
Looking at Sir Mark Prescott today, elder statesman of the Newmarket training fraternity, nigh on universally respected, with a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner recently to his credit, it's hard to imagine he was ever anything but the finished article.
On the walls of his Heath House yard hang a series of slate tablets recording the finest hours of the yard where he first took out a licence in 1970. They look very grand, but closer inspection reveals the horses inscribed on them to be something of a mixed bag, tracing back from Arc heroine Alpinista, through a slew of big handicap successes and a smattering of Group 1s, all the way back to those who ran up sequences in lowly grades to advertise the expertise, if not the firepower, of the trainer.
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Published on 7 February 2024inThe Horses Who Made Me
Last updated 18:00, 7 February 2024
- Paul Nicholls: 'That Cheltenham Festival was the turning point - I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those horses'
- Gordon Elliott: 'I was never as wound up before a race in my life and never will be again - I was a nervous wreck'
- Steve Cauthen: 'That win was a big deal - it made me want to stay in Britain and proved I hadn't forgotten how to win big races'
- John Francome: 'If it hadn't been for him, I'd be cleaning cars or in prison or doing something completely different'
- Paul Nicholls: 'That Cheltenham Festival was the turning point - I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those horses'
- Gordon Elliott: 'I was never as wound up before a race in my life and never will be again - I was a nervous wreck'
- Steve Cauthen: 'That win was a big deal - it made me want to stay in Britain and proved I hadn't forgotten how to win big races'
- John Francome: 'If it hadn't been for him, I'd be cleaning cars or in prison or doing something completely different'