Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Mark Bradstock hailed as 'a character and a great person' after death aged 66

Mark Bradstock, who prepared Coneygree to win the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup, has been described as a trainer who had a great eye for a horse and a man with a jovial sense of humour following his death at the age of 66 after a long illness.    

Bradstock, who along with his wife Sara also trained Coneygree's half-brother Carruthers to win the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup from Old Manor Stables in Letcombe Bassett, sent out his last runner on February 23 when Mr Vango won the Devon National by 60 lengths. The same horse holds an entry in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. 

A former assistant to Fulke Walwyn in Lambourn, Bradstock also rode as an amateur but enjoyed his biggest success as a trainer. Bargain buys such as Prince Madoc, Do Rightly and Cossack Dancer provided him with notable wins early in his training career and he enjoyed his first Cheltenham Festival winner when King Harald won the Jewson Novices' Handicap Chase in 2005. 

Despite losing his irons after a mistake at the last, Mattie Batchelor was the successful rider on King Harald and also guided Carruthers to a heart-warming success in the Hennessy. He spent 11 years riding for the Bradstocks and led the tributes on Saturday.

"I've no doubt Mark and Sara gave me my most memorable times in the saddle and I'll always be eternally grateful to them," said Batchelor. "Mark was a character and a great person. He was great to be around and it was always fun. 

Mark and Sara Bradstock together at the racesCredit: Edward Whitaker

"We had some great laughs and I remember one Christmas party when there were 30 of us sat in a pub and they started a food fight. My missus was looking around in disbelief, but that was the sort of people they were and they were just great times. You could call him disorganised at times, but he definitely knew how to train horses and they did it the right way."

As well as King Harald and Carruthers, Batchelor rode Coneygree early in his career and praised Bradstock for being able to identify a good horse at the sales.

He added. "One of the favourite rides they ever gave me was my first ride over the National fences in the Topham Chase on Cossack Dancer, who finished third. They were so excited he'd finished third and they are memories that will stay with me forever. I was part of Coneygree's career early on and then he went on to give them their biggest day in racing winning the Gold Cup.  

"I always remember someone telling me Mark had a very good eye when it came to buying a horse and if you look over the years he had some good ones. They also looked after their horses very well. I saw Mark in November and we were chatting away. He was so positive and his illness never got him down. He was a good person."  

Bradstock will be best remembered for his bold campaigning of Coneygree, bred by his late father-in-law Lord Oaksey, and the first novice to win the Gold Cup for more than 40 years, under Nico de Boinville. 

Mark Bradstock and his wife Sara with Coneygree and the Gold Cup

After an initial success over fences at Newbury, Coneygree landed the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices' Chase by 30 lengths and followed up in the Denman Chase, before connections were bold by shunning the RSA Chase against fellow novices to enjoy the ultimate reward in the Gold Cup.

"The Gold Cup was a fantastic day, it got me going in my career and I owe the Bradstock family an awful lot," said De Boinville. "It's been devastating to see him have such a horrible illness, it's a very sad day for everyone.

"He was a fantastic man. I used to go in there schooling once or twice a week and he was such a bubbly character, always positive, always glass half full. I loved going there and they really took me in and looked after me. I was only a conditional when I first went.

"Not many trainers would have had the bottle to go for a Gold Cup with a novice. I'd lost my claim only a month before the Gold Cup, but they never flinched. I thought they would after the Denman Chase, when Dickie Johnson took over while I was banned. But I was sitting on the sofa and I was the first person they called. They said, 'Don't worry, he's ready for the Gold Cup for you.' I owe them everything and my thoughts and prayers go to the family."

Like Carruthers, Coneygree is a son of tough mare Plaid Maid, who was purchased for little money by the Bradstocks to give Lord Oaksey some fun and focus in old age. A multiple winner for the yard, she turned out to be a fantastic broodmare and the Bradstocks excelled with her offspring.

De Boinville added: "It was phenomenal how they found that mare, Plaid Maid, and everything happened from there. It was a real family-run business. Every horse got individual attention and when they found a good one, which was more often than not, it seemed to work and we had that magical season with Coneygree."

A minute's silence was held for Mark Bradstock at Newbury on SaturdayCredit: Mark Cranham

ITV pundit Mick Fitzgerald, who won the Gold Cup on See More Business in 1999, said: "It's really sad, my thoughts are very much with the family. My defining moment with Mark was when I did the interview with him before Coneygree ran in the Gold Cup. Everybody was saying they were nuts. Davy Russell had said in a Cheltenham preview if they ran him in the Gold Cup they should take his licence away.

"I asked why he was running in this instead of the RSA and he said, 'Because we know how good the horses are in the Gold Cup and we think we can beat them'. I thought 'Fair play to him', and he was right."

The trainer's last major win came when Step Back landed the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown in 2018, winning by 13 lengths under Jamie Moore.

"That day at Sandown was one of the best of my career," said Moore, recently retired from the saddle. "It was lovely to win a big race for the Bradstocks because they actually game me my first Cheltenham Festival ride when I was 16 years old and nowhere near ready. Step Back winning was a great day and it meant a lot.  

"If you were riding a Bradstock horse you always knew what you were going to get. You'd be up in the van and they'd always run to the line. Their horses jumped amazing and they were fit and hard. Mark was a lovely man and great fun to be around. He was a loyal man, who really got the best out of his horses. He was a top trainer."

As well as wife Sara, Bradstock is survived by son Alfie, an international showjumper, and daughter Lily, a successful point-to-point rider.

Obituary:

Mark Bradstock: the small-scale trainer who defied the odds to win jumping racing's ultimate prize