I was neighbors with Sir Mark Prescott for the best part of 16 years. On the first morning I encountered him, I said, “Good morning, Sir Mark.” He replied “Good morning Mr Gilligan.” Sixteen years later, on my last morning in Newmarket, I said, “Good morning, Sir Mark.” And he said, “Good morning, Mr Gilligan.
I sent my son to Heath House, for his apprenticeship. If you cannot afford to send your child to public school, you should consider Heath House.
Jack didn’t thank me. He would return home each morning a stumbling exhausted wreck. But, after a year, the kid returned a young man. He was taught punctuality, self discipline, personal grooming, manners, respect for authority, loyalty, decency, inspiration. And the highest standards of horsemanship anywhere.
Jack looks back with fondness on those times, making friends, laughing with his fellow workers, sitting the tough ones. It toughened him up and gave him a seat on a horse a prince would be proud of. He still hasn’t thanked me.
Everything is as it should be with Sir Mark. Within the ivy covered walls of his Heath House stables, superficially at least, time stands still. Evening stables inspections are conducted with a formality found nowhere else anymore. The legendary but tragic jockey Fred Archer was apprenticed to trainer Matt Dawson here and, despite the addition of equine treadmills, pools, horse walkers and other state of the art training aids, the place still seemingly breaths Victorian fog from its chimneys.
Sir Mark says he does have a mobile phone - but no-one has the number.
He inherited his Baronetcy in 1965, and by 1970, following an 18-month stay in hospital after a fall in a steeplechase broke his back, he became Newmarket’s newest, and youngest (by 19 years) racehorse trainer.
For many years never seen without a cigar in his hand, Sir Mark Prescott has lived his life on his terms. The old Harrovian has lived a Sherlock Holmesian lifestyle, a confirmed bachelor in spite of his enjoyment of female companionship, with a love of the arts and horse racing history and the entry book.
He has landed legendary gambles and improbable winning sequences that have left the handicappers scratching their heads. In 1980, he trained 2-year-old Spindrifter to 13 victories in a season, the first time it had been done in 100 years. In 2004, he wrung seven victories from three-year-old Masafi - in 12 days, at six different racecourses, covering 2,500 miles by horse box.
He is the longest-serving trainer in Britain now, teetotal, and much too sprightly for his assistant’s liking. This son of a barrister has spent his life turning the training of a racehorse into a piece of performance art.
He has played the part of Newmarket trainer for five decades now, and, with the sad passing of the equally iconic Sir Henry Cecil, Prescott stands head and shoulders above all others now as an emblem of Newmarket, the sport of kings, and actually England too, now I think about it.
If you have never met him, it is your loss, but you are not alone. He has turned away some of the biggest names in the sport who came and sought his services - not for personal reasons, it is just that he has 50 stables, and he trains 50 horses, year-in, year-out. Not one less, not one more.
Who do you think is the most important person in world racing history?
Admiral Henry John Rous (1791-1877), the great British racing administrator who invented and perfected the weight-for-age scale, which is virtually unchanged to this day, and on which all races and handicaps throughout the world are framed.
(One of Prescott’s favorite stories has Admiral Rous one day climbing the Newmarket grandstand steps when a lady exclaims, “Why Admiral Rous, you seem very cheery today, may I ask why?” “Well Madame,” he replies. “I have just gone through the next race and have discovered that I have handicapped each horse so well, that not one of them can possibly win.”)
What is your favourite race and venue?
My favourite race is the Melbourne Cup. The atmosphere in the city for the ten days leading up to it is unique.
The venue is Epsom Racecourse. Anyone who hasn’t visited the home of the Derby should climb to the top of the grandstand. The view across the hills of Surrey, from that vantage point high on the top of the downs, is spectacular.
From there it is easy to see why Federico Tesio regarded the Derby at Epsom as the supreme test of a Thoroughbred in the world.
The winning horse, only a 3-year-old in June, had to survive fast ground (over a mile and a half) and, in Tesio’s time, a crowd of a million. The horse’s temperament had to withstand a parade, a canter down, a canter back and a long walk across the downs to the start. He had to gallop uphill and downhill and, in the latter stages, cope with a pronounced camber.
He had to turn right-handed and left-handed. He had to have the pace to secure an early position, but a disposition that allowed him to settle in mid race, plus the acceleration and stamina to climb the final hill.
On a raceday, or on a quiet day for that matter, racing history suffuses the whole place and any ardent lover of the turf could seek no finer view.
What is your fondest memory in racing?
Riding my first winner, at my first ever attempt, aged 16 at Wincanton Racecourse on September 17, 1964, in a 2-mile steeplechase. One never forgets one’s first kiss. However many more may follow, there is only one first kiss!
What do you see as the biggest challenge racing faces today?
Welfare. In an increasingly urban world, more and more people believe that animals think like humans, while fewer and fewer people learn enough about animals to know how they think!
Thus our administrators have a hard job on their hands. Modern people know about pets, watch enough wildlife programs to comprehend the wild, but have no experience or understanding of the working animal anymore, and that is our greatest challenge.
If you could change one thing in racing, what would it be?
I would try to ensure that those in control of the sport continue to contain an element of sportsmen and sportswomen and those with a love and deep knowledge of animals. Bureaucrats have a place, but should not dominate.