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STILL FINDING THAT EDGE… Sir Mark Prescott has been training winners from Heath House in Newmarket for over 50 years. While much appears unchanged since the 1800s, there is innovation at every turn, discovers Lucy Higginson Some lucky people come across money in the street, get bumped up to business class, or find their size on the sale rail. But the truly blessed are those invited to tour Heath House stables with Sir Mark Prescott. Newmarket’s longest-standing trainer, he has presided here for almost 52 years and trained over 2,000 winners, including stars Alborada, Pivotal and Confidential Lady. Few have enjoyed such a remarkable racing career – and no one is more charismatic. Central to these achievements is his unending quest to make his horses a little happier, healthier and fitter than anyone else’s. Though Heath House looks much as it did in 1885 when the Dawsons trained here (the name of the yard’s previous trainers, and its greatest horses, are listed on the walls), look closely and you will find innovation everywhere, not least to thwart a thoroughbred’s innate ambition “to kill
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itself from the moment it arrives,” says Sir Mark, not entirely in jest. Heath House accommodates only 50 horses – I’d love to tell you which world leaders Sir Mark has politely turned away as owners but am sworn to secrecy. A horse starts life at Osborne House stables (across the lane from the main yard), the oldest working yard in Newmarket. Some of Sir Mark’s modifications here are based on common sense, like shrubs planted around stable doors to prevent yearlings from scraping a hip on a door frame. One stable has a net suspended across the ceiling. “It’s been there for 35 years,” explains Sir Mark. “You normally have one colt that stands on its hind legs. One touch of that with its ears and it stops. I like to avoid battles by letting horses sort things out for themselves.” Then there is the legendary ‘crazy corner’, as Mark calls it – a couple of corner boxes
