'You don't need to be a genius - the key to a good career is just having the horses at the heart of what you do'

A life with horses is all David Porter-Mackrell has ever known and one simple conversation with him is enough to show he would not have it any other way. 

Porter-Mackrell's triumph at year's Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards was not only due reward for his entrepreneuring work at Newsells Park Stud but also the culmination of a lifetime's dedication to the breeding industry. 

At a lavish ceremony at Ascot racecourse, Porter-Mackrell began the evening with tempered expectations and no acceptance speech in mind, only a determination to not to be disappointed at losing. By the end of the ceremony, however, he had walked away with the event's top prize, employee of the year, and was £15,000 richer. Not a bad way to spend a night. 

"I've watched the video back once or twice and I'm surprised I could even string a sentence together," he says. "I thought that once I collected the prize for the stud staff category the difficult bit was over and I could enjoy myself. 

"The nomination alone was the biggest compliment I could get, so the big prize wasn't even remotely in my head. When they announced my name, thankfully my wife gave me a big hug, so I had a chance to gather myself and, with all the lights on me, managed to get through a speech somehow."

David Porter-Mackrell receives his employee of the year trophy from the Princess Royal at the 2024 Thoroughbred Industry Employee AwardsCredit: Dan Abraham

While that whirlwind of a night will long live in Porter-Mackrell's memory, it was the subsequent well-wishes from his colleagues and friends in the industry which he has most savoured. 

"The nicest thing is how everyone has been so positive about it," he says. "It's one thing for the judges to award it to you after they get a glimpse into your working life, but when people that you've worked with for many years celebrate your win, that's the royal seal of approval.

"It still feels a bit like a dream, really, and it provoked a lot of thoughts about all those people who've helped me along the way. I feel very fortunate." 

Porter-Mackrell may have made his name during his 16-year tenure at Newsells Park Stud in Herefordshire but the list of people to contribute to his career goes much further back. 

With no family background in the industry, it was at a boarding school in Sussex that Porter-Mackrell first came into contact with horses, and the effect they had on his life was immediate. 

He says: "I spent a good bit of time in hospital when I was a kid and missed a lot of schooling. It can be really difficult for kids once you're behind and it probably manifests in a negative way. Being around the horses, they give what they get, and they have a very positive influence. 

"They were good for me, they were just the right thing at the right time. They helped me with a lot of difficulties, so it became pretty obvious pretty quickly that working with horses was something I wanted to do for a living. It was a no-brainer, but I wasn't really much of a rider, so someone suggested the stud industry."

Porter-Mackrell got his start at a stud for sports horses, where he worked not for money but for experience alone. 

"The lady who ran it was in her last year of business, so she had a reduced number of horses and one Warmblood stallion, who wasn't very busy," he says. "He was my first proper introduction to stallions and straight away I knew it was what I wanted to do. 

"I wasn't paid, I was living in a caravan and basically worked every day, but it was the best thing I ever did. I learned a hell of a lot, and it meant that when I went to study at the National Stud I was in a much better position."

David Porter-Mackrell pictured at Newsells Park Stud with Nathaniel in 2021Credit: Edward Whitaker

With the basics of the job mastered, Porter-Mackrell's introduction to the world of horse racing was a crash course in the commercial element of the sport, discovering the pressures that come with clients with big wallets. 

He put his new-found knowledge to use first at Heatherwold Stud before moving in 2000 to Epsom's Wingfield Stud, where he met his wife Miranda, and eventually to Whitsbury Manor.

It was at the Hampshire yard that Porter-Mackrell learned the immense value of having a good team around you, an experience he feels was the making of him, thanks in part to the mentorship of stallion foreman Mick Keegan.

"That was my big break, it's where everything started to come together," he says. "When I first got there, we were doing our health and safety talk with the manager and he went to skip over the element that involved the stallions, so I put my hand up to say I'm interested. As luck would have it, the second stallion man wanted to take a step back, so the door opened.

"It's so important to be influenced by the right people, and Mick's empathy for the horses was second to none. He was at Whitsbury for 30 years, many horses came through his hands, and he never had a bad word for any of them. I think that's something very much to be desired, particularly in the racing world. Being able to get horses comfortable, safe and happy does the world of good." 

By the time Porter-Mackrell moved to Newsells in 2009, he had graduated into a leader in his own right after his mentor's retirement. His new posting came with challenges but was a one-of-a-kind chance to build an operation from the ground up, with the yard ready to venture into stallion operations for the first time. 

He says: "It was too good an opportunity to miss. The challenge was that the buck stopped with me, but I went for an interview and I was on side with everything that Julian [Dollar, manager] wanted to do. Above all, he wanted to make sure that it was a friendly, decent environment.

David Porter-Mackrell and Julian Dollar at the Thoroughbred Industry Employee AwardsCredit: Dan Abraham

"I love fostering relationships with long-term clients, and the yard has gone from strength to strength. It's always been a big thing for me to make sure I have a positive influence on those around me, I try to show them the right way of going about things and hopefully they'll carry that forward." 

The stallion ranks have blossomed to four at Newsells thanks to new recruit Isaac Shelby and the yard's employees have been well commended in recent years, with colleague Elody Swann also winning the TIEA stud staff prize in 2021. 

The incumbent employee of the year winner traditionally serves on the subsequent judging panel but illness has kept Porter-Mackrell away from the task this year. It has resulted in Adam Spouse taking over stallion duties at Newsells and has frustratingly kept Porter-Mackrell from capitalising fully on his victory in the way he would wish, but has not tempered his willingness to champion the sport to all who will listen. 

"I would've really liked to have been able to use the platform that the awards gave me to do much more but unfortunately, with the way things worked out this year, I've not been able to," he says. 

"I've had my own personal challenges, but I want to showcase what the industry can offer. I think probably we need to shout more about the positive things; all too often we're defending ourselves and we've got a lot of great things to shout about and a lot to offer people. 

"I'd have liked to show to youngsters in particular that you don't need to be a genius. The key to carving out a good career is just having the horses at the heart pf what you do. 

"A lot of people can offer something to the industry but they need to see that it offers something to them in turn, and that there's a way in for those with no horse background. 

"There seems to be less and less people coming into the game at the base level and I wonder if there's a larger pool of people who would relish the opportunity than what we're tapping into at the moment?"

A lifetime devotion to horse welfare saw Porter-Mackrell rightly honoured at last year's award ceremony, and it is heartening to see he is eager to reach out a hand to those ready to embark on a similar path. A few more people in the sport with an ethos like him would be no bad thing at all.

The 2025 Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards take place on Monday, February 24

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