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Mark Bradstock - a "hands-on" jumps trainer

By Sean Magee
First Published: 07 December 2009 - Issue Number: 28

It was once said of Linford Christie that he achieved perfect balance over 100 metres on account of having an equally large chip on each shoulder.
If Mark Bradstock were to sport the same adornments, who could blame him? After all, did not a spectacular brush with officialdom puncture the euphoria of his finest hour, with his first Cheltenham Festival winner spending months facing demotion on account of the dope test result?
Yes, he was completely cleared of giving King Harald a prohibited substance before the stable stalwart won the Jewson Novices’ Chase in 2005, but something as simple as innocence is not by itself enough to silence racing’s branch of the No Smoke Without Fire school of criminal justice.
At a time when according to his yard’s sponsor, King Harald’s co-owner Piers Pottinger, Bradstock was poised to “move up to the next level of the training ranks”, a dark shadow of suspicion was cast over his whole operation. More immediately, there was the indignity of Jockey Club security staff turning up and poking around in the tack room behind closed doors. No wonder Bradstock’s wife Sara recalls that period as “three months of absolute hell – they treated us like mad axe murderers.”
And yet, despite that jarring experience Mark Bradstock is remarkably un-chippy about most of the issues which are said to make the lot of the small trainer so needlessly difficult.
Prize money cuts? “You can bang on about prize money all the time, but the situation isn’t going to change. Where is the extra money to come from?”
The infernal battle with the handicapper? “Having your horse go up a couple of pounds is not the end of the world.”
BHA instructions on the dissemination of “information”? Ah, now that’s a different matter…
With 20-odd horses in Old Manor Stables, Letcombe Bassett – fabled as the yard from which the late Captain Tim Forster sent out three Grand National winners – the Bradstock operation is the quintessence of the small trainer, with most of the problems and many of the rewards attendant on that rung of the training ladder.
In common with so many small yards, Old Manor Stables is very much a family affair, with Sara – John Oaksey’s daughter – and children Alfie (15) and Lily (13) key players. Alfie, who regularly rides out for Clive Cox as well as for his father, is building himself a major reputation as ...

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