Homer Scott hailed a 'larger than life character' as Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer dies at 68

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Homer Scott: has died at the age of 68 Credit: CAROLINE NORRIS

Lorcan Wyer has described Homer Scott as a "larger than life character" following the death of the former trainer just before his 69th birthday.  

The pair teamed up to land the National Hunt Chase of 1986 at the Cheltenham Festival with Omerta, while it was a young Paul Carberry, claiming 5lb at the time, who did the steering on Rhythm Section when he won the 1993 Champion Bumper at the expense of Charlie Swan on Heist. 

Those were Scott's two festival winners, but The Committee twice went close to becoming a third as he was runner-up to subsequent Gold Cup winner Garrison Savannah in the 1990 Sun Alliance Chase and went on to be placed in back-to-back Kim Muirs in 1993 and 1994. 

Other big names Scott trained included Saraemma, who landed a Grade 2 handicap chase over 2m at the 1994 Punchestown festival, and Canute Express, who was a winner at the Grand National meeting at Aintree in 1986. 

Scott finished towards the top of the trainers’ championship in both 1985 and 1986 during Paddy Mullins’ spell of dominance, and held his licence up until 2023 when he surrendered it amid allegations relating to the welfare of horses in his care. 

Wyer said of Scott: "He was a larger than life character and we had an amazing journey together. It was a magical time and it's only when you look back on it now after all these years that you realise just how magical it was. 

"Homer had a wonderful collection of horses when I was with him. There were the likes of Omerta, who won at Cheltenham, and Canute Express, who was a brilliant, little horse. There were so many nice horses there back then and Homer was a great man at marrying everything together."

More recently, Scott sent out Strong Johnson to win sprints at Tipperary and the Curragh in 2021 and, on his final start for the trainer, he finished third in the Group 3 Mercury Stakes at Dundalk at 66-1. He is now in the care of Paul Midgley and has won nine of his 69 career outings. 

He is survived by children John, Sarah and James.