‘Absolute Inspiration’ - Remembering Kevin Prendergast's Racing Legacy

The racing world mourns the loss of Kevin Prendergast, who died at age 92 after a remarkable 60-year training career that yielded over 2,000 winners from his Curragh base.

Johnny Ward on irishracing.com’s YouTube show The Irish Angle shared personal memories of the legendary trainer: "He was an absolute inspiration. When I got to know him in his 80s and into his 90s he was still having a few pints of a night, if not most nights, he'd go fishing, he'd go shooting, he'd go with the horses every morning."

Prendergast's longevity was partly attributed to a decision made in his 50s. Ward recalled: "His father, when he was effectively on his deathbed, said you want to give up the cigarettes, Kevin Prendergast gave up cigarettes in his 50s and there's no doubt that he wouldn't have gotten to the age that he got if he hadn't made that decision."

'A glint in his eye...'

The trainer's dedication to his craft continued well into his advanced years. "I remember looking at him walking around the yard at times in his 80s, and I was struggling to keep up with him," Ward remembered. "Age was just a number, he was just an all-round really likeable fellow with a kind of a glint in his eye."

Among Prendergast's notable achievements was training Awtaad, who won the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh and later became the sire of Royal Ascot winner Ethical Diamond. While he "never actually won a Derby," Prendergast "went close a few times" in racing's most prestigious contests, as Vincent Finegan noted.

The show also paid tribute to Hugh Mulryan, a twenty-five-year-old racing professional from County Galway and son of owner-breeder Liam Mulryan, whose recent sudden death has shaken many in the industry. The team described him as "a unique character who was very sharp and was going to go a long way in the game."

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