Trainers

Once described by ‘Racing Post’ journalist David Ashforth as ‘one of the most intelligent and interesting figures in racing’, Sir Mark Prescott is, in fact, a hereditary baronet. Specifically, he is Third Baronet Prescott of Godmanchester, having inherited the title his uncle, Sir Richard Stanley Prescott, in 1965 and, as such, is entitled to the prefix ‘Sir’.

As a 17-year-old, Prescott broke his back when his mount slipped up on the Flat at Wye Racecourse – an incident that he later described as ‘the defining moment of my life’ – and, following 18 months in hospital, eventually became assistant trainer to Jack Waugh. Waugh retired in 1970 and Prescott took over the licence at Heath House, on the Moulton Road, Newmarket, thereby becoming, at the time, the youngest trainer in the ‘headquarters’ of horse racing.

Prescot saddled his first winner, Belle Royale, whom he inherited from his predecessor, at Stockton Racecourse in April 1971. Fast forward five-and-a-bit decades and his career total is in excess of 2,000 winners; his best horse to date has been the Frankel mare Alpinista, who finished her career with six Group 1 wins in a row, culminating with victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October 2022.

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An eight-time Champion National Hunt Trainer in his native Ireland, Noel Meade is the epitome of the old adage ‘Great oaks from little acorns grow’. Born on January 2, 1951, he first turned his hand to training in 1971 and, at that stage, he had just one horse, Tu Va, in his charge. Meade also part-owned the modest 100 guineas purchase and, memorably, rode him to victory at Wexford on August 30, 1971, thereby saddling his first winner as a trainer. Fittingly, the base for his training operation, in Castletown, Co. Meath, is called Tu Va Stables.

Fast forward five decades or so and Meade has saddled nearly 3,000 winners. In the first 20 years of his career, his emphasis was on Flat racing and, in recent years, he has undergone a resurgence in that sphere, too. He saddled his first Group 1 winner, Helvic Dream, in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May 2021 and, in 2023, saddled 35 domestic winners from 322 runners, at a strike rate of 11%, and amassed €734,393 in prize money.

Under National Hunt Rules, Meade has a total of six Cheltenham Festival winners to his name, all since 2000, with the most recent being Jeff Kidder in the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle in 2021. Domestically, in the 2022/23 National Hunt season, he saddled 23 winners from 179 runners, at a strike rate of 13%, and won €553, 645 in total prize money.

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William Mark Brisbourne, invariably known, at least in racing circles, by his middle name, was a successful National Hunt jockey, with over 50 winners to his name, before turning his hand to training in 1991. However, in May 2019, Brisbourne announced that we was being forced to retire from the training ranks, against his wishes, after Ness Strange Stables in Great Ness, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire – where he had been based for the whole of his career – was put up for sale.

Brisbourne saddled his first winner, Green’s Cassatt, in a lowly Class E handicap at Thirsk on August 1, 1992 and, over the next three decades, went on to saddle another 533 on the Flat and a further 26 under National Hunt Rules, for a career total of 560 winners. He enjoyed the most successful season of his career in 2004, when he saddled 56 winners from 648 runners, albeit at a fairly modest strike rate of 9%.

It would be fair to say that big race wins were few and far between, but Brisbourne did collect the £50,400 first prize for the £100,000 Tattersalls Autumn Auction Stakes at Newmarket in October 2003. Brisbourne also did well with several ‘budget’ purchases, notably Adobe, who cost £1,800, and Belle Royale, who cost £800, but was sold for a ‘six-figure sum’ before winning the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Hollywood Park in May 2012.

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Charlie Johnston is, of course, the elder son of Mark Johnston, who, on August 23, 2018, officially became the most successful trainer in the history of British Flat racing. A narrow victory for Poet’s Society in the Clipper Logistics Handicap at York took his career record to 4,194 winners, thereby beating the previous record held by Richard Hannon Snr.. Having gained a licence, Johnston Jnr. first started training alongside his father, in a partnership, on January 1, 2022. However, the following December, Mark Johnston stepped down for the partnership, leaving Charlie in sole charge of the family yard at Kingsley Park Farm in Middleham, North Yorkshire.

In his first season at the helm, ably assisted by his father, Johnston saddled 1,261 runners, which yielded 174 winners, at a strike rate of 14%, and £2.8 million in prize money. His first ‘black type’ winner in his own right was Dear My Friend in the Listed Burradon Stakes at Newcastle in April 2023, but he went on to enjoy further high-profile successes with Sacred Angel in the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot and Carolina Reaper in the Group 3 Zukunfts-Rennen at Baden-Baden later in the year. 2025 saw Lazy Griff, emerge as a high-class performer, finishing second in the 2025 Epsom Derby, a great result for Johnston.

In 2026, so far, Johnston has continued the good work, saddling 4 winners from 56 runners, and amassing £75,000 in prize money to lie tenth in the Flat Trainers’ Championship at the time of writing.

 

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