Sir Mark Prescott: 'Our car was surrounded by screaming Japanese girls'

This brilliant interview with Sir Mark Prescott, originally published for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers in October, has been republished as part of our Best of 2022 series. To read all of the series, and get the best of our award-winning journalism every day, sign up to Members' Club Ultimate here. Select 'Get Ultimate Monthly' and add code BESTOFFREE to get your first month completely free.

Sir Mark Prescott has never been to Germany. Alpinista has been there three times, to win three Group 1s, but her trainer has remained resolutely at home in Newmarket on each occasion.

Luke Morris has been to Germany at least three times, with Alpinista, and to France with her as well, to win another Group 1, but Sir Mark wasn't there that day either. He hasn't been racing in France for 21 years. Bullfights, yes, but racing, no.

He went with another smart filly, Red Camellia, when she was third in the 1997 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. But he didn't go with Marsha when she won the Prix de l'Abbaye six years ago, nor even with Confidential Lady, who won the Prix de Diane in 2006 at such massive PMU odds that the great man almost spontaneously combusted in his (successful) bid to shovel on as much money as was humanly possible from the comfort of his living room.

Where others might saunter over for a day at the races and a night on the town in Paris, Prescott, a devotee of lime cordial and Newmarket sausages, opts to sit it out at Heath House – the Yorkshire Oaks is about as long-haul as he'll countenance – no less delighted to have trained a significant winner to add to his now 52-year total but still disinclined to brave the intricacies of foreign travel.

Actually, it's not the red tape or the hanging around that deter him, more the vomit and the disillusionment.

"I had a shocking journey when [five-time champion jockey] Doug Smith was violently ill in the plane and handed me his sick bag once he'd filled it," he explains. "What he thought I was going to do with it, I don't know, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.

"Mostly, though, it's the aftermath of the race that puts me off. I've had those terrible trips when you're hermetically sealed with the owner and yours has run extraordinarily badly, you trudge across the car park and you're always in a private plane which has been chartered by the people that had the winner, and they're ecstatically happy and they won't leave the course at the end of the day and they won't get on the plane and your owner is silent while they're all roaring with laughter and corks are popping.

"And, of course, your owner's silence is inevitably punctuated every half an hour by a voice saying: 'How much did you say it cost to get our horse over here?'

"I'm afraid I'm of the same school of thought as [former Manton trainer] George Todd, a private in the British army at Dunkirk, who when asked if he would be accompanying his great horse Sodium to France for the Arc, replied: 'I went there for eight days and I didn't much enjoy it.'

"I've had a few Dunkirks along the way, so I try to avoid them whenever I can."

Except that this year, it's going to be different.

Groom Annabel Willis, trainer Sir Mark Prescott and owner Kirsten Rausing enjoy the aftermath of Alpinista's Yorkshire Oaks winCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Yes, I'll be there," confesses Prescott, neither delighted nor heavy of heart, just a little out of his comfort zone. "Miss Rausing has insisted I go to Paris and she's taking it very seriously. I think we're going on a flying carpet."

It goes against the grain to be missing an entire Sunday of ringing each and every one of his 59 owners; in fact, says Prescott: "It's a horror to miss the one day you have the chance to get everything up to date." But Miss Rausing – the formidable Swedish breeder Kirsten – is the owner of Alpinista, and Alpinista is the filly who apparently has a 5-1 chance of capping her and Prescott's careers by winning the Arc.

"I'd still rather win the Derby," says the trainer, a little ungraciously, perhaps mischievously, "but they tell me the Arc is the best race in the world, so I'll be there, over in the morning and back in the evening, because the sales are on and we're both going to be busy.

"People like Geoff Wragg used to have some wonderful outings abroad, but I'm the other way round. Going racing isn't something I really enjoy. I enjoy training the winners, but not going to the racecourse."

For the rest of us, a Prescott winner of the Arc would be a very welcome outcome, capping the seemingly endless career (utterly endless if you're his loyal and patient assistant William Butler) of a man whose lack of a British Classic winner would be at least partially offset by success in the continent's premier prize. He's not without hope either.

"She's got the best chance on the form book," he points out. "There are so many things to bear in mind, but if you just look at the form book, she's probably got the best chance." And yet...

"The terrifying statistic: when did a five-year-old mare last win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe? I've done my homework, nobody else has, you haven't, but then why would you need to when somebody else has and they're about to tell you the answer?"

The answer is 1937, a mare called Corrida, appropriately enough for a student of the bullfights. It's only a statistic, of course, and not necessarily a harbinger of doom, but it's there, hanging in the ether, daring us to interpret it, which Prescott is happy to do.

"I suspect it's because 1) if they're very good they've gone to stud by the time they're five and 2) by the time they get to five, a lot of them aren't as good or as genuine anymore. It's quite a statistic to overcome, but at least there are reasons for it, even if you'd rather there were two or three more five-year-old mares on our side. It's a cautionary tale, whatever way you look at it."

Sir Mark Prescott reflects on past glories in his living room at Heath House Stables, hoping for one more from Alpinista in the ArcCredit: Edward Whitaker

Even for those trainers who would rather win a Derby, the prospect of an Arc success is something to be savoured, and the 74-year-old Prescott concedes: "I'd be thrilled to win it and even at my advanced age it's very exciting to have one to run in it with a proper chance."

He still marvels at Dancing Brave's 1986 masterclass – "as good as you'll ever see, the whole thing was sensational" – and "the ride Dettori gave Golden Horn, marvellous", but he confesses to having seen just one in the flesh.

"I ran a marvellous old horse called Foreign Affairs in it and he didn't run badly [tenth to Sakhee in 2001 under George Duffield]," he remembers. "He won the John Smith's Cup and was second in the Ebor that year, and the owners said 'go on, stick him in there', and they had a proper outing, a couple of days to limber up, a day for recovery, and they had a fantastic time, while the trainer went over for the day and came home as soon as he could."

Lest you should think the master of Heath House a dreadfully parochial curmudgeon for failing to embrace the delights of foreign travel, please bear in mind that there have been other hiccups along the way, every bit as bad as Doug Smith's sick bag, not least the trip to the Japan Cup with Miss Rausing's Alborada, who had to be withdrawn with a minor fracture that was uncovered when she began work in Tokyo.

"Suboptimal news," was how the owner greeted the phone call from her trainer, but for Prescott there was at least the compensation of a limo trip with Eric Clapton to see the guitar god in concert – although even that didn't go quite as well as he might have hoped.

"It should have been the saving grace," he recalls. "The car was surrounded by screaming Japanese girls and it was quite an experience, but when we got to our seats in the fifth row, I found I just couldn't stay awake, so I slept through the whole thing and didn't wake up until the music stopped.

"I went backstage afterwards and tried to say all the right things to Mr Clapton, about how much I'd enjoyed the whole evening, and he said: 'Yes, I saw how much you'd enjoyed it.' So it turned out to be not much of a trip at all."

It may sound like a bit of a cruel trick on the part of the owner to campaign her best horse so insistently in Germany, and then France, knowing her trainer's views on leaving home, but Prescott isn't complaining one bit. It means he hasn't had to go racing quite as much and Alpinista has already earned herself ticks in a couple of the boxes that go towards making a successful broodmare.

"Once she'd won two Group 1s in Germany last autumn [the Grosser Preis von Berlin in Hoppegarten and the Preis von Europa in Cologne], Miss Rausing felt if she won one more [the Grosser Preis von Bayern] she'd be champion in Germany, which is always a help in a pedigree, and strangely the grandmother [Albanova] had won three Group 1s and been champion over there, so both of us thought it was the obvious plan.

"With Alpinista, the first one, you were pleased to win a Group 1; the second you were rather expecting; and the third you'd have been desperately disappointed if you hadn't won it. But the paperwork to get her there, from England through France to Germany, was such a logistical nightmare that it made it all the more of an achievement.

"It reminded me of what Joseph O'Brien said about getting his horse to the Melbourne Cup last year, that if he'd known how difficult it was going to be to do the paperwork, even if they'd told him it was going to win, he didn't think he'd have gone."

The past and the present at Heath House: the trainer at his historic yard with superstar AlpinistaCredit: Edward Whitaker

Prescott holds on to the head of the sweet grey mare as she has her picture taken on the lawn at Heath House, framed by the familiar freshly trimmed hedges against a backdrop of historic red-brick boxes. The uninitiated among us remark on how pretty she is, how neat and athletic and good-natured, but the trainer isn't one to be won over by the praise of an enamoured hack and his photographer, not when he had Australian training legend Gai Waterhouse here recently and was treated to her opinions.

"Gai asked to see her, and I was very flattered that she'd want to," he recalls, "but however polite she tried to be, she could hardly conceal her disappointment. The thing is, Alpinista's not huge or strapping, not imposing in any way, but there's nothing wrong with her, all the working parts are there.

"She's got a bit better all the time, she's won her last seven races, Listed, Group 2 and five Group 1s, and the Group 1s have been steadily more competitive, so you just have to hope she can get a bit better one more time."

It's almost as if Prescott admires the understated gifts of the daughter of Frankel more than if she were flamboyantly expressive and twice the size. He makes no bold claims for her, or for his handling of her, but there's a deep-seated thankfulness for her natural gifts.

"It would be nice to make up some interesting story about a lot of complications and what a genius the trainer must be – which of course he probably is but he hasn't had to be with her. She does it all very easily and nicely, her coat was very slow to come in the spring but since then it's all gone as it should do, and she's very good-natured and straightforward, very easy to train."

That's been the case since she won on her debut as a two-year-old, facing a test which might not have been expected to bring out the best in such a stoutly bred daughter of staying mare Alwilda.

"The mother needed two miles-plus to get her black type, but this filly went well pretty quickly as a two-year-old and you felt if she could win over seven round Epsom first time up – and we thought she would – she couldn't be all bad," says Prescott. "To have that kind of pace out of a staying mare, you hoped she might be quite good, but she was small and you wondered if she'd go on. Luckily she did."

And now she's gone to the Arc, victory in which you'd think, while welcome and thrilling, would hardly be of vital economic importance for a trainer of Prescott's standing and longevity. He's been at this game since 1970, after all, which has given him plenty of time to make a name for himself, so surely he doesn't have to work too hard at maintaining his reputation or the fullness of his yard?

"Oh, yes," he replies, insistent that keeping the ship afloat is still very much a motivating factor in his work. "If Alpinista could just pull her finger out it would be great, because over the last couple of years, the number of yearlings has gone down here, despite the fact I've had very good seasons.

"If she could poke her nose in front one more time, it could make a big difference, because I'm still having to work away. Last year we had three Group 1s, the most improved horse in the country and the most winning horse in the country, Caribeno, and we got 20 yearlings instead of 30.

"We had 46 winners from 50 boxes, and if you can't fill the place on the back of that, you start to feel you need a bit of something. It's only because I've been around too long. The days when I turned down 60 yearlings in one season are long gone. In those days I could fill the place whatever I did – now I have to be so much nicer to everybody."

Of course, there's the possibility of lifting some of the pressure from his creaking shoulders by making Butler a partner in the business, but weary William is under no illusions.

"I said to him the other day: 'Now listen, they're all talking about joint licences.' And I saw his little eyes light up. So I said: 'The only trouble is, they haven't got any print small enough for your name.'

"You see, I have no intention whatsoever of retiring, so to win an Arc would be nice."

As for a realistic assessment of Alpinista's chances, which is no less than we'd expect from such a pointedly unexcitable soul, he says: "In a race, you can ride her how you like, which makes it easier for Luke; then you need the draw, and those Germans and French have a habit of improving one for the Arc. But she's been trained all year for this, just like them, to be at her best for just one day, and as long as it isn't very heavy we'd be happy."

Win, lose or draw, though, Prescott will return home that evening, reunited with the nitty gritty of a trainer's life, pleased to be back at Heath House and training racehorses, with his passport once again consigned to the drawer where it belongs. Racing travel may broaden the mind but once every 21 years is enough for anybody.

This interview was originally exclusive to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Read more Members' Club interviews here:

'I always scream like that watching Alpinista - I'm very much all in'

'Competition is pushing us to try new ways - my results are shaped by stats'

'We knew we had a National horse' - Monty's Pass and a monster Aintree gamble

Stay ahead of the field with the ultimate racing subscription – and your first month FREE. Enjoy the Racing Post digital newspaper and award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing, and make informed betting decisions with our expert tipping and form study tools. Head to the subscription page and select 'Get Ultimate Monthly', then enter the code BESTOFFREE to get Members' Club free for one month.

First month free, subscription renews at full monthly price thereafter. Customers wishing to cancel will need to contact us at least seven days before their subscription is due to renew.