Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer and ‘great character’ Mark Bradstock dies at 66

JUMPS racing is mourning the loss of Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Mark Bradstock at the age of 66 after a long illness.

Alongside his wife, Sara, he famously saddled Coneygree to win the big one at the Festival in 2015 when the horse was still a novice.

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Coneygree famously won the Gold Cup for the Bradstocks in 2015[/caption]

It was the first time a novice had won the Gold Cup in 41 years, when Captain Christy hit the target in 1974.

The stable also enjoyed a memorable day at Newbury in 2011 when Carruthers won the Hennessy Gold Cup up popular jock Mattie Bachelor.

Bradstock, who never trained more than a dozen or so horses at one time in ?, sent out his last runner on February 23 – when ? bolted up in the Devon National by 60 lengths.

The now-retired Bachelor led the tributes to Bradstock, saying in the Racing Post: “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.

“Mark was a character and a great person. He was great to be around and it was always fun.

“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.

“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.”

Speaking on ITV’s Opening Show, pundit Mick Fitzgerald also paid tribute, saying: “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.”