Our Columnist Richard Williams recently had the pleasure of talking to Sir Mark Prescott about his life as a trainer.

How Has Racing changed since you started training?

Trainer numbers have increased vastly partially in National Hunt racing

Having spoken to a few trainers, is it harder today to find single owners or are Syndicates the way forward with owing a race horse?

Single owners are disappearing

Do you tend to follow the same path with certain horse’s or does it depend on how the horse copes?

It depends on the horse’s we have at home

One thing I have always wondered is… Weighted saddles…. Are they used to gauge how much weight a horse can carry comfortably to certain distances?

No - but we do gallop horses at different weights using weight cloths

There has been plenty of talk recently, from trainer’s regarding the current handicap system, with one telling me that it is from the dark ages, what is your view?

Handicaps are hard to place especially as English owners don’t like claims

Marsha was a fantastic horse, how was she to train and how difficult will she be to replace?

Marsha was easy to train and will be very hard to replace

If you could have trained ANY horse who would it be and why?

• Frankel…. The best flat horse in my time
• Arkle - The best national hunt horse I have seen

Finally, can you give our readers a couple to keep an eye on for the upcoming season please?

No! You’d be surprised and suspicious if I did!

We would like to thank Sir Mark for his time.