'The happiest years of my life' - Sir Mark Prescott's mentor dies aged 79

Neil Kernick, the former West Country-based jockey and trainer, has died in a hospice in Paignton, Devon. He was 79 and had been in poor health for many years.

When his father Sid, a journeyman jockey, started training after the war at Kingsteignton, near Newton Abbot, Kernick was an integral part of the business, riding his first winner on Scottish Black Mail at Fakenham on May 22, 1961, before leaving home for spells with Arthur Freeman and Major Peter Cazalet.

Most of his 89 winners as a jockey, accumulated between 1960 and 1981, were achieved on the West Country circuit. His greatest day came at Chepstow when he rode four winners on a card for Kingsbridge-based David Barons.

Kernick's two best winners were Solomon in the 1970 Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton, where he got the better of a close finish with Terry Biddlecombe, and later that year when he won a Chepstow novice chase on subsequent Gold Cup runner-up Mac Vidi.

Both of those successes came when riding for Barons as second jockey to champion Bob Davies. His only Grand National mount, Richeleau, trained by his father, fell at the first fence in 1973.

On his father’s death in 1982, Kernick relinquished his riding licence, took over the training licence, and sold the Kingsteignton yard to buy a property near Buckfastleigh.

However, winners proved hard to come by and the death of his principal owner, the arrival of the financial downturn and the subsequent soaring interest rates obliged him to hand in his licence in 1987.

Throughout his life he suffered from a spectacular stammer, so much so that in those less sensitive times Freeman, during a lengthy post-race debrief, once exhorted Kernick to “spit it out, son, and I will read it – there's only 30 minutes between races!”

His stammer, fiery temper and his relentless determination to remain independent, whatever the difficulty, did not always make him an easy client for the Injured Jockeys Fund, which remained indefatigable in its care for him in his final years.

Sir Mark Prescott: first walked into the Kernick yard at the age of 14Credit: Edward Whitaker

Kernick and his father were the first mentors for Newmarket trainer Sir Mark Prescott, who recalled first walking into their yard, aged 14, “and embarking on the happiest two and a half years of my life".

He added: "They enjoyed to the full every winner they trained, or rode, and every horse they broke in that went on to have a useful career. Life with them was stimulating, and often dangerous, but every day was fun, and the debt I owe them can never be repaid.”

Kernick leaves behind his second wife Barbara and son Jonathan.

There will be a private family cremation at Torquay Crematorium on the morning of Monday, March 21, and a thanksgiving service at St Michael’s Church, Kingsteignton at 2.30pm, to which all are welcome. Donations to the Injured Jockeys Fund.